At least twelve people were killed yesterday Sunday in an armed attack on a celebration that had been organized by young people in the city of Salvatierra, in the state of Guanajuato, in central Mexico, as the local authorities announced.

“As of now, twelve people are dead”the attorney general of Guanajuato, which is among the Mexican states with the most acute problems with violent crimes, said via X (formerly Twitter), due to the conflict of powerful gangs for territory.

Authorities also said about ten people were injured, who were taken to hospitals.

According to Mexican media, the massacre took place at the San Jose del Carmen estate, which is usually rented out for holidays. The area, where vehicles were also set on fire, was cordoned off by the security forces, an AFP correspondent found.

A person who was at the celebration and asked not to be named said that six armed men arrived on the scene and began to circulate among the young people participating in the celebration.

As “they weren’t invited”, when “we went to ask who they were, they started throwing”, added this eyewitness, clarifying that the celebration had been organized by a group of friends ahead of Christmas.

The victims were “all young people we knew, good people. What is happening in Salvatierra is a horror,” said Carlos Silva, a member of the Terra Negra foundation, which promotes social projects, via Facebook.

It is not clear if the attackers belong to any of the gangs operating in Guanajuato.

Attempted extortion

According to David Saucedo, a security consultant, who cited statements from family members of the victims, one of the organizers of the celebration had been the target of an extortion attempt by a criminal organization, which may have been the motive for the attack.

“He refused to pay (…) and moved the event elsewhere, to this estate,” he explained and pointed out that the specific zone is controlled by the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel.

In addition, an armed attack that took place on Saturday night in Salamanca, a city of about 160,000 inhabitants in the same state, resulted in the death of four people and the wounding of two others, according to local authorities. Gunmen on motorcycles broke into a hair salon and started shooting.

Similar attacks have been carried out repeatedly in recent years in Guanajuato, which tops the list of states with the highest number of homicides since the beginning of the year — 3,029 dead, according to official data.

In Salvatiera, a city of 90,000 inhabitants, mass graves with the remains of at least 50 people were found in 2020.

The area, home to a thriving industrial center, has become a theater of conflict between the Santa Rosa de Lima and New Generation of Jalisco gangs, who are mainly involved in drug trafficking and fuel theft, among other things.

In Mexico, according to official figures, more than 420,000 murders have been recorded since the so-called “war on drugs” began in 2006, with the deployment of the armed forces inside the country to crack down on the cartels. Since then, the country’s homicide rate has tripled, reaching 25 per 100,000 residents. Over 110,000 enforced disappearances have also been recorded, the majority since that year. Both murders and enforced disappearances are attributed by the authorities in the majority to organized crime gangs.