A car bomb attack yesterday morning left two state police officers dead in the small town of La Pila, located adjacent to the San Luis Potosi–Santiago de Queretaro Highway (Federal Highway 57), on the southeastern outskirts of the city of San Luis Potosi, the capital of the north-central state of the same name.
The attack reportedly occurred while the state police officers were conducting a patrol through the area.
At least one suspect was arrested following the attack, though authorities are reportedly seeking additional suspects.
Following the attack, additional security forces were surged to the area, including members of the Mexican Army Special Forces and National Guard personnel.
Though car bombs have been used elsewhere in Mexico in attacks against security forces by cartel-affiliated gangs, including in the neighboring state of Guanajuato, this is a relatively new phenomenon in San Luis Potosi.
Most concerningly, La Pila is located at the southern end of the San Luis Potosi industrial corridor and is adjacent to several major industrial parks housing numerous American, Canadian, European and Japanese manufacturers, including the nearby BMW plant.
San Luis Potosi, part of Mexico’s vital Bajio industrial corridor, provides direct access to Federal Highway 57, one of the most important north–south corridors linking Mexico City with the northern states.
This service has noticed an increasing amount of cartel activity in the state over the last several months, including incursions by the ultraviolent Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Spanish abbr: CJNG).
In mid-April, the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection of the State (Spanish abbr: SSPCE), along with state police, arrested nine suspected members of a criminal group aligned with CJNG in the municipality of Villa de Reyes in San Luis Potosi.
Villa de Reyes, located in the central portion of the state, is intersected by the San Felipe–Villa de Reyes highway (Federal Highway 32), about ten miles from the border with the neighboring state of Guanajuato.
Among those arrested was reportedly the group’s leader.
Police also seized firearms, narcotics, and three vehicles that had previously been reported stolen.
Although the arrest of gang members is a routine occurrence in the municipalities bordering San Luis Potosi and Guanajuato, it nonetheless demonstrates the presence of one of Mexico’s most notorious and violent cartels in the state.
In addition to CJNG, factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, as well as the Los Metros and Los Escorpiones factions of the Gulf Cartel (Spanish abbr: CDG), operate in the state, where rival groups routinely compete for territory.
Numerous lower-level cartel-affiliated groups are also present, including Los Talibanes and remnants of the Cartel of the Northeast (Spanish abbr: CDN) and Familia Michoacana Cartel (Spanish abbr: FM).
San Luis Potosi also experiences regular spillover violence from the cartel-plagued neighboring states of Guanajuato and Zacatecas.
The mountainous areas east of the capital city of San Luis Potosi are also especially hazardous.
Personnel who reside in or visit the city of San Luis Potosi should exercise a higher level of vigilance than has been necessary in the past.
Interior travel in the state should not be undertaken without fresh intelligence on areas to be visited. Road travel is unwise after dark.
Portions of western San Luis Potosi bordering Zacatecas and the mountainous eastern parts of the state should be avoided entirely.
