Associated Press
SALAMANCA, Mexico (AP) — Beer containers, clothing with apparent traces of blood and some candles remained scattered on Monday on a local soccer field in the municipality of Salamanca, a town in the state of Guanajuato, in central Mexico, where on Sunday At least 11 people died and 12 others were injured when armed individuals shot at people spending the afternoon there late after a game.
While the local prosecutor’s office investigates what happened, the governor of Guanajuato, Libya Dennise García, assured on Monday on her social networks that “security in the region has been reinforced” with state and federal forces.
“The State will act firmly to protect families, restore peace to the community and find those responsible,” he indicated.
The private dirt soccer field where an amateur match was played is located about 300 kilometers northwest of the Mexican capital. On Monday morning he was without any type of security and with the National Guard making sporadic rounds, according to The Associated Press.
The event is one of the worst attacks involving the civilian population of this administration and took place in the state with the most homicides in the country, a region of intense violence linked to the territorial dispute between the local cartel of Saint Rose of Lima —a very violent group dedicated mainly to fuel theft and trafficking— and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
According to what the mayor of Salamanca, César Prieto, said on Sunday, the only one who gave details of what happened, the attack is part of the “wave of violence” that the area is experiencing and the existence of “criminal groups trying to subdue the authority.”
Furthermore, it occurs a few months before the start of the World Cup of Soccer in Mexico—co-host of the tournament along with Canada and the United States—and while Claudia Sheinbaum’s government not only wants to emphasize its advances in security but also tries to promote local and grassroots soccer.
Just on Monday, during the morning presidential conference, the celebration of 74 “world cups” throughout the country was announced as a “powerful tool for the comprehensive development” of the population, as highlighted by the Secretary of the Interior, Rosa Icela Rodríguez.
Sunday’s game had nothing to do with these activities, but the event was an opportunity for locals to have a party, according to social media announcements from the local league that organized it.
Authorities have not offered hypotheses about the possible motive for the attack.
Security analyst David Saucedo, who for years was based in Guanajuato, indicated that the first information that has emerged from witnesses seems to indicate that it was an attack that was not directed at any person.
In his opinion, it seems that he was executed by members of the Santa Rosa cartel who wanted to “provoke the arrival of state and federal forces” to that area under the control of their enemy, the Jalisco cartel.
According to Saucedo, the attack “destroys the image that Mexico wants to project of coordination and combat and containment of homicidal violence, just on the eve of the Soccer World Cup.”
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is the most expanding criminal organization in Mexico, declared as terrorist by Donald Trump’s administrationwhich also targeted the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel.
According to the Treasury Department, the actions of this group “contribute to the existence of a cross-border black market in energy, undermine legitimate U.S. oil and natural gas companies, and deprive the Mexican government of critical revenue” by stealing billions of dollars from Petróleos Méxicanos, the Mexican state energy company.
In fact, the mayor of Salamanca recalled that last week there was a threat with an explosive device at the Pemex facilities that was deactivated without causing damage.
