On 27 June 2023, gunmen traveling in multiple trucks targeted a Chiapas state police personnel transport vehicle on the highway that connects the town of Ocozocoautla de Espinosa to the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez. The attackers intercepted the police vehicle and forced the officers inside to exit the vehicle. The armed men then released all the female officers but took 14 male officers with them when they fled the scene. Search and rescue efforts to locate the abducted security personnel are ongoing. Violence has escalated in Mexico’s southern border region near Guatemala in recent months after the Jalisco New Generation Cartel began an effort to wrest control of the area from the Sinaloa Cartel.