Nine killed in armed attack on wake in central Mexico

Nine people were killed and one wounded when attackers opened fire at a wake in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, officials have said.

Public safety officials in the city of Celaya said in a statement the attackers arrived late on Thursday night. Local news reported the wake was held for a man murdered a day earlier. Images from the scene showed bodies strewn in the street.

Guanajuato is at the centre of a bloody turf war between rival organised crime groups. There was no immediate report of who was responsible for the killings. Thousands have been killed in Guanajuato since the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang faced off with the Jalisco New Generation cartel in 2017.

Authorities captured the leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima gang in August, but the violence has continued.

The Santa Rosa gang grew up in a farming hamlet of the same name. It stole fuel from government pipelines and refineries and robbed freight from trains. But after authorities stepped up security around trains and pipelines over the last two years, the gang turned to extortion and kidnapping.

The Jalisco New Generation cartel has been Mexico’s most violent in recent years, aggressively expanding its reach across the country through bold attacks against its rivals and government forces.

Their conflict has made Guanajuato – home to San Miguel Allende, a popular retirement spot for Americans – Mexico’s deadliest state.

Heavy, rapid gunfire could be heard ringing out in video footage taken near the attack and broadcast by Mexican media.

Otra vez en Guanajuato, otra vez en un velorio.

Nueve personas fallecieron y una quedó herida de gravedad, tras el ataque en un velorio en Arboledas de San Rafael en Celaya.

Vía @proceso pic.twitter.com/1BpHCDoY3l

— Ruido en la Red (@RuidoEnLaRed) January 8, 2021

Translation: Once again in Guanajuato, again at a wake. Nine people died and one was seriously injured after the attack at a wake in Arboledas de San Rafael in Celaya.

In September, gunmen killed 11 people in a bar in Jaral del Progreso near the border with Michoacan state. More than two dozen people were killed in an unregistered drug rehabilitation centre in Irapuato in July.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office two years ago pledging to reduce record levels of violence, but murders have continued to reach new peaks.