Leaders in the Mexican border state of Chihuahua gathered on Sunday for the funeral of a National Guard officer killed in a cartel ambush last week.
Col. Juan Manuel Corral Hernandez, an infantry officer with the 23rd Battalion of the Mexican National Guard, was on patrol duties in a town in the southern part of the state when his unit came under fire last Wednesday. Corral received gunshot wounds to the chest and was taken by a military helicopter to a hospital, where he later died. Chihuahua state authorities said 16 suspects have been arrested in connection with the attack and several guns seized. Mexican news media have identified the suspects as members of a Sinaloa cartel cell. On Jan. 26, a soldier on patrol near Guadalupe y Calvo was similarly shot dead. And a few days ago, another Mexican army officer, a soldier and a state police agent were hospitalized after their unit was attacked by explosives dropped from a drone, also near Guadalupe y Calvo.