8 killed, 2 wounded in mass shooting at strip mall in cartel stronghold in Mexico

Eight people are dead and two others are wounded after gunmen pulled up to a roadside stand in north-central Mexico and opened fire on customers and bystanders, authorities reported Sunday.

Prosecutors in the cartel-ravaged state of Guanajuato said the shooting occurred late Saturday in a busy commercial area with food and refreshment stands in the town of Apaseo el Grande.

Eight men died just outside the stand, which was selling a traditional type of milk-based fudge. Another man and a woman were wounded in the attack, but there was no immediate report on their condition.

Officials said two firefighters died in the shooting and local media reported that a paramedic was one of those killed in the shooting. The state ambulance and paramedic agency said an emergency medical technician had died late Saturday, but did not confirm whether he was one of those killed in the attack.

Video posted on social media showed men’s bodies with apparent head wounds scattered among motorcycles parked outside the stand.

The town of Apaseo el Grande, and its sister community of Apaseo el Alto, have been hit by mass shooting attacks in recent years which experts say are related to warring drug cartels. There have been a series of mass shootings at bars, clubs and businesses in the area since at least 2018.

Gang-related violence has continued unabated after Mexico’s new president Claudia Sheinbaum took office on October 1.

She has ruled out declaring war on the cartels and instead proposed a strategy she described as being based on gathering intelligence to sap their operational capacity.

Sheinbaum also wants to carry on with her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s policy of attacking crime at its roots, with investment in social spending and crime prevention.

Recent violence in Guanajuato

Guanajuato, an industrial and farming hub, has for years had the highest number of homicides of any of Mexico’s 32 states. The Jalisco cartel and the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang have been locked in a years-long turf battle in the state.

On October 4, the bodies of 12 slain police officers — all bearing signs of torture and left with messages by cartels —  were found in different areas of Salamanca, a town in Guanajuato. The state prosecutor’s office also said the perpetrators left messages in which a cartel claimed responsibility. Messages are often left on victims’ bodies by cartels seeking to threaten their rivals or punish behavior they claim violates their rules.

The bodies were found less than 24 hours after gunmen attacked a residential center for people suffering from addictions in the same municipality, killing four.

In June, a baby and a toddler were among six members of the same family murdered in Guanajuato. In April, a mayoral candidate was shot dead in the street in Guanajuato just as she began campaigning.

Last December, 11 people were killed and another dozen were wounded in an attack on a pre-Christmas party in the state. Just days before that, the bodies of five university students were found stuffed in a vehicle on a dirt road Guanajuato.

The U.S. State Department urges Americans to reconsider traveling to Guanajuato. “Of particular concern is the high number of murders in the southern region of the state associated with cartel-related violence,” the department says in a travel advisory.

AFP contributed to this report.