SALAMANCA, Mexico — A community football match in central Mexico descended into horrific violence Sunday when armed assailants stormed the pitch and opened fire on spectators, leaving 11 dead and 12 wounded in a region increasingly paralyzed by organized crime. The attack occurred in Salamanca, a modest industrial city of 160,000 in Guanajuato state, immediately following a local game.
According to municipal authorities, ten victims died at the scene while another succumbed to injuries at a medical facility. Among the wounded were a woman and a child, highlighting the attack’s indiscriminate nature. Salamanca Mayor Cesar Prieto issued an urgent plea to federal authorities for intervention, stating his community faces a ‘grave moment’ and ‘serious social breakdown’ as criminal organizations challenge governmental authority.
The football pitch shooting represents merely the latest episode in a brutal weekend for the region. Just one day prior, authorities discovered four bags containing human remains in Salamanca. Simultaneously, six individuals were killed in two neighboring communities. These incidents follow a bomb threat last week at a local refinery operated by state oil giant Pemex.
Despite being a prosperous industrial zone and popular tourist destination, Guanajuato consistently ranks as Mexico’s deadliest state due to relentless turf wars between criminal syndicates. Official homicide statistics attribute much of the violence to conflicts between the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, known for oil theft operations, and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organizations.
This surge in violence creates a stark contrast to claims by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who recently asserted that homicides have dropped to their lowest level in a decade under her security strategy. Many security experts remain skeptical of these official figures.
Mexico’s prolonged security crisis, predominantly linked to drug trafficking, has resulted in over 480,000 deaths since the government initiated its military crackdown on cartels in 2006. An additional 120,000 persons remain missing, with many presumably forced into cartel service or abducted. The discovery of mass graves and dismembered remains has become tragically routine across the nation.