Nine people were killed Wednesday evening in a bar in the state of Guanajuato, in central Mexico, the most violent in the country and an important industrial, cultural and tourist center, local authorities announced on Thursday.
As several times in recent months, the attack, which also injured two, targeted a bar in the evening, at 9 p.m. local time, in a town called Apaseo el Alto.
The first elements of the investigation report “armed men aboard a van” who opened fire on bar customers, killing five men and four women, according to a statement from the municipality of Apaseo el Alto.
Local authorities have asked any witnesses to come forward on condition of anonymity. Attacks of this kind often go unpunished.
In mid-October, twelve people were killed and three others injured by bullets in the attack on a bar in Irapuato, also in Guanajuato.
An industrial state, notably hosting a Mazda factory, Guanajuato is the scene of clashes between two cartels, Jalisco Nueva Generacion and Santa Rosa de Lima.
Wednesday’s attack was carried out, according to local media, in retaliation for the arrest last Tuesday of one of the leaders of the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, Juan Rodolfo Yépez.
A total of 2,115 homicides were recorded between January and August in Guanajuato (six million inhabitants), according to government sources.
Despite this violence, Guanajuato and its eponymous capital, a magnificent colonial city, remain high places of cultural tourism in Mexico. The biggest theater festival in the country – the Cervantino – was held here in October.