Enrique Francisco Galindo Ceballos Monte Alejandro Rubido García Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (suspected) Events: Topics: On May 22, 2015, a three-hour shootout broke out between the Mexican Federal Police and alleged members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in Ecuandureo, Michoacán, leaving 43 dead.
The shootout is widely regarded as one of the bloodiest incidents in the ongoing Mexican Drug War, which to date has taken the lives of tens of thousands in Mexico.
The Federal Police conducted tests at the crime scene and confirmed that the gunmen fired at the security forces and were shot from a distance.
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission concluded their investigation in 2016 and stated that the Federal Police extrajudicially killed at least 22 of the 42 men.
According to Mexico's national security commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido García [es], at around 7:00 a.m. on May 22, 2015,[1] agents of the Federal Police were patrolling the Autopista de Occidente, a highway that connects Guadalajara with Morelia and Mexico City, when they noticed several suspicious vehicles with armed civilians leaving a property close to the highway.
[2] The authorities were heading to a ranch property known as "Rancho del Sol" in Ecuandureo, Michoacán,[A 1] which borders the state of Jalisco, that they believed had been taken over by organized crime members on May 18.
[12] Due to the intensity of the shootout, the Federal Police called for ground and air reinforcements, including a Black Hawk helicopter with additional troops.
[28] Once the situation was neutralized, federal agents established several checkpoints in the border regions of Michoacán and Jalisco to tighten security and prevent the mobilization of organized crime groups.
However, other unconfirmed reports stated that law enforcement had information that Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (alias "El Mencho"), the leader of the CJNG, was hiding inside the property.
[34][35] Those reports alleged that "El Mencho" managed to escape when the Federal Police engaged with the first CJNG unit in the highway since the element of surprise was gone.
This version was confirmed by Tanhuato's mayor José Ignacio Cuevas Pérez, who stated that the ranch where the shootout took place is visible from the regional highway and is known for growing alfalfa.
[39] The mayor of Ecuandureo, José de Jesús Infante Ayala, said in an interview that the municipal government had not received any property taxes from the ranch and thereby had no information about it or the owner, who local citizens alleged that lived in Guadalajara, Jalisco.
[40] The 43 corpses were recovered by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and the Forensic Medical Service of Morelia, Michoacán, for their formal identification.
[46][47] In terms of organized crime–law enforcement clashes in Mexico, the death toll was one of the biggest in the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012–2018) and in the Mexican Drug War.
[56] In August 2015, leading journalist Carlos Loret de Mola reportedly had access to the details of the investigation and published an article claiming that the killings were indeed extrajudicial.
In addition, given the corpses' state of decomposition, Loret de Mola argued that the shootout occurred between 4 and 5 a.m., several hours before the Federal Police reported that it happened.
[60] It was later confirmed that their names were Roberto Rafael Gutiérrez Rodríguez, José Eduardo Mares Lara, and César Jesús López Solís.
[61] They confessed that they had been recruited by the CJNG a few weeks before to sell drugs, carry out extortions, spy on law enforcement, and serve as foot soldiers in their confrontations against security forces.
[66][67] An unnamed state official from Michoacán who was not authorized to speak with the press confirmed that all the victims were male and between 25 and 45 years old, and that most of them were native of Ocotlán, Jalisco.
[71] For the four remaining bodies, Michoacán state authorities carried out DNA tests to the family members in order to determine the identities.