A state police officer and her two bodyguards were killed in a highway ambush in Michoacán, Mexico’s violent western state, security officials reported on Monday.
Michoacan’s state security agency announced on social media that three members of the state Civil Guard died in the line of duty on Sunday night. Cristal García Hurtado was a provincial police commander. The local press said that she had been decapitated.
“We strongly condemn the cowardly murder of our fellow Civil Guards, who were cruelly attacked while on duty,” the social media post read. The other two victims were identified as Itzel Madero Larrea and David de Jesus Espinoza Valdez.
The attack occurred on the highway between Patzcuaro and Uruapan.
The Michoacan State Prosecutor’s Office, which is investigating, did not respond immediately.
Michoacan has been particularly badly impacted by gang turf conflicts, with the Jalisco New Generation cartel battling a local gang, the Viagras, for control. Thousands of civilians have been uprooted as organized crime tests drone attacks and improvised explosive devices.
Earlier the previous month, three farmers were killed by an alleged bomb planted in Michoacan. This came just days after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador admitted that an improvised explosive device killed at least four soldiers in what he described as a “trap” constructed by a cartel in Michoacan.
In February, two candidates for mayor of Maravatío were assassinated within hours. So far this year, at least six local lawmakers have been assassinated ahead of the national elections on June 2.