Yesterday the spokeswoman for the Culiacán-Navolato Joint Operation (Operativo Conjunto Culiacán-Navolato), Emma Quiroz Acuña, suffered an attempted assassination by gunmen while on her way to visit family in the neighborhood of Guadalupe, two blocks away from the house of the Sinaloa governor.
According to a preliminary report by local authorities, Acuña was traveling on board a Lincoln Navigator westward on Río Elota Street when her car was intercepted by a group of gunmen who opened fired on the truck. Because the bullets were not able to penetrate the car due to the shielding of the unit and the ability of her bodyguards to fend off the aggression, Acuña remained unharmed. Nonetheless a young painter by the name of Joel Cruz Soto, who was working on a remodeling job in a nearby building, was hit by one of the bullets and died.
The attackers used an AK-47 and fired at least fifty times. On September 5, 2007, the former spokesperson for the joint unit, Óscar Rivera Inzunza, was gunned down after leaving his office and boarding an official vehicle. In 2009 on December 23rd one of her bodyguards, Cristian Iván Díaz Rojas, who was a member of the State Preventative Police force disappeared and was later found dead.
Sources:
Martínez, Javier Cabrera. “Balean a vocera de Operativo Culiacán.” El Universal. 27 Julio, 2010.
