Gunmen attacked the convoy of Chihuahua state’s governor, killing a bodyguard and wounding two others. The shooting added to the air of lawlessness in Chihuahua, where heavily armed drug gangs challenge authorities even while they fight each other for control of smuggling routes into the United States.
The late Sunday shootout occurred after Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza Terrazas’ three-car convoy stopped at a signal in the state capital, also named Chihuahua. One of the assailants was wounded.
Baeza said he was not the target of the gunmen, who fired at guards trailing the governor at some distance.
Chihuahua’ state Atty. Gen. Patricia Gonzalez said in a television interview Monday that the wounded gunman was in custody. He entered the Mexican military in 2001, Gonzalez said, but she did not say whether he was still enlisted.
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Baeza, who was in the lead car, said shots were fired “many meters” behind him and aimed only against the trailing vehicle. Baeza said “four or five” gunmen in a compact car never got close to him nor gave chase when he drove off.
“There was never direct aggression against the governor,” Baeza told reporters.
He declined to suggest a possible motive.
In 2008, more than 1,600 people died statewide in drug-related violence, the highest toll for the year among Mexico’s states. This year, the number already exceeds 300, according to unofficial counts in the Mexican media.
The country saw more than 6,000 slayings in 2008. The toll so far this year is above 800, according to media tallies.
In Ciudad Juarez, the state’s deadliest spot, officials said they were taking seriously banners posted Sunday that threatened Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz. Officials stepped up security but said the threats would not alter his plans to clean up the corruption-laden police department.
The city’s police chief, Roberto Orduna Cruz, quit Friday — two days after signs threatened that a police officer would be killed every 48 hours if the chief stayed on the job. In the hours before he stepped down, a municipal officer and jail guard were fatally shot. Orduna said he wanted to prevent more attacks against the city’s 1,600 officers.
Chihuahua, across the border from Texas and New Mexico, has been hit hardest by violence spiraling nationwide as President Felipe Calderon presses a two-year offensive against drug smugglers.
Ciudad Juarez, located across the U.S. border from El Paso, Texas, is site of a war between a local drug cartel and traffickers from the northwestern state of Sinaloa.