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The victims were found Thursday at multiple points across the
refinery city of over 200,000. In at least one case, a banner
signed by a drug cartel was left with some of the bodies.
The massacre is the latest episode in a wave of violence in
Salamanca, west of the state’s capital Guanajuato, where gunmen
killed four men and wounded two others in an attack at a drug
rehabilitation center late Tuesday.
Authorities said there are no clear suspects and they continue
to investigate.
The industrial and agricultural state of Guanajuato has for
years been the scene of a bloody turf battle between the Jalisco
New Generation Cartel and a local gang, the Santa Rosa de Lima
Cartel. Guanajuato has the highest number of homicides of any
state in Mexico.
Security analyst David Saucedo said that the Jalisco New
Generation Cartel has control of urban areas, while Santa Rosa
de Lima controls rural ones, but they continue to fight for
control of cities like Salamanca.
“There’s been a presence of the National Guard but (the
violence) hasn’t stopped,” he said. “Salamanca has a very
complicated situation.”
Saucedo said that Salamanca has had three different police
directors in the last three years, noting a lack of capability
to take on the organized crime groups.
Salamanca Mayor César Prieto Gallardo was quoted in the media as
saying that city and state authorities are working in a
coordinated manner. “Unfortunately," he said, "This is a
conflict between delinquent groups. The civil population has
nothing to do with this.”
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