Nine people have been killed in an armed attack near Puebla in central Mexico, the state government has said in a tourist area affected by comparatively less drug cartel violence than several other Mexican states.
The attack in Atlisco took place in a house where drugs were hidden, according to the authorities.
Miguel Barbosa, the governor of Puebla, said “six men and three women” living in a “middle-class neighborhood” had been “executed”.
“According to the first data” of the investigation, the house where the attack was committed “was a point of sale and distribution of drugs”, he added.
After arriving in trucks, gunmen stormed the house and opened fire, according to a witness who asked not to be named.
About 150 km from the capital, Puebla is best known for its pre-Spanish archeological sites in Tsolula, its colonial-style historic center, as well as its “mole”, pepper and chocolate sauce.
The massacre took place just two weeks after it ended in Mizoakan (west).
At least 11 people were executed on February 28 in a showdown between two rival drug cartel factions, according to the first data of the investigation.
The bodies of the victims of the massacre, committed during one’s mother, have not been found.
Local media reported at least 17 dead.
An anonymous amateur video, which shocked a country otherwise accustomed to extreme gang violence, is the main presumption of the massacre, by a large group of executors, of people standing on the wall with their hands on their heads.
Mexico has been rocked by a wave of violence for some 15 years, with 340,000 dead and 100,000 missing, according to official figures.
The violence began to escalate when former President Felipe Calderon declared a much-contested totalitarian “war” against drug cartels, deploying troops inside the country. Incumbent President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says he prefers the policy of “hugs, not rifles”, but he too has entrusted the military with tackling powerful gangs of organized crime.
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