Overview
- The pickup burnings, which occurred Monday on the México–Toluca highway at El Zarco in San Pedro Atlapulco, followed residents' detention of the vehicles they identified as used to haul illegal timber.
- Witnesses and local reports say shots were fired during the confrontation and several suspected loggers escaped on foot or in other vehicles.
- State security agents from the Secretaría de Seguridad del Estado de México and emergency crews responded to control the fire, secure the scene and begin investigations.
- Community organizers say this was the fifth collective action this year by local vigilance brigades and that they have seized as many as 12 vehicles over recent months, some previously burned.
- Residents and local leaders are demanding permanent deployments by the Guardia Nacional, the Ejército and state police to stop what they say has been three years of worsening clandestine logging that has destroyed large areas of forest and threatened community safety.