At least 14 people were killed to Texcaltitlana city in central Mexico, during a violent clash between the villagers and a gang of criminals who were trying to extort money from them. The local authorities reported this. “The death of 14 people has been reported, eleven of whom appear to belong to a criminal group and three are residents of the area,” Mexico’s secretariat of state said in a statement.
According to the Mexican press, the criminals are members of the group La Familia Michoacana, who had gone to the agricultural village to extort money from the residents. A video released by several local media shows the moment before the clash, when around fifty villagers gathered on a football field and insulted around ten people armed with assault rifles.
Since the launch of the military’s controversial anti-drug offensive in 2006, the country’s murder rate has tripled to 25 per 100,000 people.