Gunmen kill 11, injure 12 on crowded soccer field in Mexico

Mexico City: Gunmen opened fire on a crowded soccer field in Mexico on Sunday, killing 11 and injuring 12, in a tragedy that appeared to highlight the persistent violence from the nation’s cartels despite the government’s efforts.

Gunfire hit people who were socializing after a soccer match, according to local officials, capping a particularly violent period in Salamanca, a city of 275,000 in the central state of Guanajuato.

Another incident left five people dead in Salamanca on Saturday, and a week earlier, authorities disarmed an explosive device at a state-owned oil facility there.

“We are going through a dark moment, a serious breakdown of our social fabric,” Cesar Prieto, Salamanca’s mayor, said in a video address Sunday night. “Sadly, criminal groups are trying to subdue the government, something they will never achieve.”

Guanajuato had Mexico’s highest number of murders last year, with 2,035 intentional homicides. That violence has been largely driven by a turf war between a local cartel and the Jalisco New Generation cartel, Mexico’s most powerful criminal group.

Salamanca, in particular, lies near a border that separates territory controlled by each group, and is also home to an important oil refinery. Both cartels want to control Salamanca to aid their drug-trafficking and fuel-theft businesses. Local officials said they were investigating Sunday’s shooting, including whether either cartel was involved.

The mass shooting is an especially unwelcome development for the Mexican government, which has been carrying out an aggressive campaign against drug cartels in an effort to show the White House that it is serious about stopping the flow of drugs to the United States.

President Donald Trump has been threatening land strikes against the cartels in Mexico for months, saying the groups run the country. President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico has said repeatedly that a unilateral strike would be a violation of Mexican sovereignty.

Recently, more specific threats from Trump, as well as the U.S. capture of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, have heightened fears among Mexican officials that Mexico could be in the crosshairs next. The Trump administration has also been pushing Mexican officials to allow U.S. forces in Mexico.

In response, Mexico has been eager to hit the cartels harder, hoping it can stave off any U.S. action. In recent days, Mexico announced the capture of several highly sought-after criminals, including a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who had become a prolific cocaine trafficker. Mexico also transferred 37 accused criminals to the United States last week.

The government’s efforts have helped lower the number of homicides by more than 20% in Mexico compared with a year prior, according to the Sheinbaum administration. It has focused much of its firepower on the Sinaloa cartel, a notorious criminal organization based in the nation’s west, and has succeeded in significantly weakening the group. But security experts have said that, at the same time, the Jalisco cartel has strengthened its grip on other parts of the country.

That includes Guanajuato. Homicides in the state dropped over the second half of last year, but the fighting between the Jalisco cartel and the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, a local group, has meant the killing has continued.

The soccer field where the shooting occurred Sunday is a popular gathering point in the community, with matches drawing large crowds each weekend, said Orlando Arredondo Gallardo, a Salamanca government spokesperson. “There are children, there are food stands,” he said. “Everyone attends, especially on Sundays, which is when it’s more family-oriented.”

The 12 people injured in the shooting included a woman and a child.