Gunmen ambush, kill 26 in remote area in Mexico
Posted on 06/01/2002 6:48:41 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Gunmen ambush, kill 26 in remote area in Mexico
06/02/2002
MEXICO CITY - Twenty-six people were killed during an ambush in a mountainous drug-trafficking area of Oaxaca after the truck they were riding in was attacked by gunmen, police said Saturday.
The ambush occurred Friday evening near the village of Santiago Textitlán, about 50 miles southwest of Oaxaca City. There were conflicting reports about whether the ambush was part of a land dispute or a personal vendetta.
State officials, including police, prosecutors and magistrates from Oaxaca City, were at the scene of the massacre Saturday. Details of the attack were slow to stream out because of the area's remote location and poor communications infrastructure, authorities said.
The peasants who were killed were from Santiago Sochiltepec, a mountain village of about 700 in the municipality of Santiago Textitlán. The people in that municipality have had disputes with those from the municipality of Santo Domingo Teojomulco, about 15 miles to the south, authorities said.
Eliodoro Díaz Azcárraga, the Oaxaca civil protection director, said the attack was similar to one eight years ago in which 13 people from Santo Domingo Teojomulco were killed.
"There has been in the past an attitude to not settle land claims in the area in order, according to our investigation, to protect an area of narcotics trafficking," said Eliodoro Díaz Azcárraga, the state's civil protection director.
The attackers allowed the truck's driver, identified as Alberto Antonio Pérez, 54, to live, and he told authorities what happened.
Police said the ambush occurred about 7 p.m. Friday after the truck carrying peasants was stopped by several armed men at a settlement called Agua Fria near Santiago Textitlán. The driver and his son were told to leave and the peasants were marched off and shot, police said.
State Attorney General Sergio Santibáñez arrived in the area Saturday to direct the investigation. He was joined by more than 100 law enforcement officials.
The search for the killers began Saturday, but police said it would be difficult because of the remote, rugged area where the attack occurred.
E-mail dsedeno@dallasnews.com
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