MORELIA, MEXICO — Mexican officials stood by their account Monday of a shootout that killed 42 suspected criminals and one federal police officer last week, dismissing questions being raised about the lopsided death toll.
“There was not one single execution, I can say that categorically,” Enrique Galindo, head of Mexico’s federal police, told local media.
The 42 men died Friday during a three-hour gun battle on a ranch in northern Michoacan state. Mexican officials say the fight began when police officers came under fire while responding to a report of armed men taking over the Rancho del Sol, in Ecuandureo, a township near the border with Jalisco state.
It was the deadliest such confrontation in recent memory and followed two deadly clashes in the area controlled by the powerful Jalisco New Generation cartel. The gang is blamed for an ambush that killed 15 state police officers in April and for a May 1 attack in which a rocket launcher shot down an army helicopter, killing eight soldiers.
Families of some of the men killed on Friday told The Associated Press that after viewing the remains of their loved ones, they doubted the official account.
Galindo said a helicopter gunship had participated in the shootout and that its role had been decisive. “If the helicopter had not arrived, the death toll might have been different.”
The case recalled a June 30 case in Tlatlaya, a rural community in Mexico state in which the army initially said 22 suspected criminals were killed in a confrontation and only one soldier had been wounded. An investigation by The Associated Press revealed that several of the suspects were executed after surrendering. Seven soldiers have been charged with wrongdoing.
Officials sought to distance Friday’s shooting from the Tlatlaya case.
