When reporters arrived in Celaya, in north-central Mexico, in late February to speak with police, they found a deceased man lying on his back in the parking lot of a convenience store. The body was surrounded by a smattering of expended bullets and shell casings, an image that is all too typical in Guanajuato state, which has the highest murder rate in Mexico.

On February 28, as a policeman was taking his spouse to work, gunmen from the cartel, who had reportedly followed them home, opened fire on their vehicle. Before passing away, the policeman killed one assailant. His daughter, age one, and his wife were uninjured.

Talking About Celaya City Of Mexico

However, a police officer was fatally shot by cartel gunmen one week prior when she was escorting her 8-year-old daughter to school. They also killed the girl. Greetings from Celaya, which is maybe the riskiest area in North America for police officers to work per resident.

In the previous three years, at least 34 police officers have died in this 500,000-person city. With a population of slightly over 6 million, Guanajuato state had around 60 times more police fatal shootings in 2023 than the entire country.

This city finds itself at the center of a national discussion concerning security strategy as the June 2 presidential election in Mexico draws near.

Corrupt Law

Celaya has disregarded President Andres Manuel López Obrador’s advice to seek out peace deals with the gangs and has refused to adopt his strategy of not taking on the cartels. “I think it is very good,” López Obrador remarked when Roman Catholic bishops revealed they had met with cartel executives in February to discuss a truce between rival gangs.

The president of Mexico despises law enforcement and prefers to rely solely on the armed forces. Claiming they were corrupt, he disbanded the previous federal police force and eliminated nearly all federal financing for local police equipment and training.

Like the majority of his team, Rivera Peralta was formerly a federal police officer. Nearly all of them are not from Celaya. They go out solely on patrol and reside in safe barracks; hence, they have been dubbed “Fedepales,” a play on the terms “federal” and “municipal.”

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