MEXICO CITY (AP) — Gunmen killed a Navy rear admiral in Mexico on Friday, one of the highest-ranking officers killed in the country in a decade.
Mexico’s navy said a rear admiral – ranked just below the navy’s highest rank – had been shot dead in the Pacific coast port city of Manzanillo. Local media gave his name as Fernando Guerrero Alcántar, but a navy spokesman would not confirm that or whether he was wearing a uniform at the time.
The Navy said in a statement that he was driving his own private vehicle when the attack occurred, so it was unclear whether the gunmen knew who he was.
He is believed to be one of the highest-ranking military officers killed in Mexico since 2013.
That year, gunmen in neighboring Michoacan state ambushed and killed Vice Admiral Carlos Miguel Salazar, the top naval commander in the neighboring Pacific coastal state of Jalisco. Members of the Templar drug cartel were blamed for the murder.
Vice Admiral is a slightly higher rank than Rear Admiral.
Attacks by Mexican cartels on senior officers have occurred, but are relatively rare.
However, the Mexican government in recent years has given more law enforcement responsibility to the navy, army and militarized National Guard, and they now represent the armed forces on the front lines against the country’s drug cartels.
Because Manzanillo is a Pacific coast port with direct shipments from China and other places in Asia, it is highly prized by drug cartels looking to smuggle in precursor chemicals to produce the deadly opioid fentanyl.
