The massacre of at least 11 adults celebrating a Christmas party in Mexico is the most recent episode of the exacerbated violence that hits the country. Outrage grows at what citizens denounce as the authorities' inability to clarify the crimes without “demonizing” the victims.
In addition to the dead, whose ages ranged between 16 and 36 years, 14 people were injured in the shooting that occurred in the early hours of December 17 in Salvatierra, Guanajuato.
Its about state that this year concentrates the highest number of murders in the country, with 2,875 victims from January to Novemberaccording to official figures.
Young people have been the main victims of the most recent massacres, such as the five murdered at the beginning of December in Celaya, also in Guanajuato, the center of the nation, or the disappearance in August of another five in Jalisco, in the west, whose martyrdom and Possible death was broadcast in a photo and video.
Who were the victims?
Smiling, hugging and happy to meet again before Christmas. This is how the young people looked in a photograph taken hours before the barbarism, whose dissemination after the massacre contributed to moving a country accustomed to violence.
“They were all friends, they were all acquaintances. It is a generation that is hurt,” said Angélica Zamudio, aunt of one of those murdered, to the media 'Aristegui Noticias'.
A former beauty queen, a teenager and a member of the musical group that entertained the party are among those murdered, local press reported.
Thalía Cornejo, 25, had been elected “queen” of Salvatierra in 2017, as seen in a video of her coronation where she looks radiant.
Héctor Almaraz, 16, posed wearing a cowboy hat and a heartthrob smile in photos that his mother, Ana Maura Rivera, shared on Facebook. Now, he uses the network to say goodbye to his “beautiful little boy”: “You leave me in pieces that I don't know how to put together,” he wrote.
Juan Luis García was the father of two children and a sound engineer for the Dinastía Cornejo group, which animated the party. “Please wake up, don't leave us. God, give him more time, my children need it you don't know how much and so do I,” wrote his widow, Yaz Muñoz.
“I knew them and I know they were good young people,” declared the mayor of Salvatierra, Germán Cervantes, filled with “indignation” after the crime.
A count by the newspaper El Universal indicates that since the beginning of the current government -December 2018- there have been at least 61 multiple murders (three or more deaths) where the victims were between 15 and 29 years old, in 19 Mexican states.
Who killed them and why?
The massacre took place in a mansion in the municipality of Salvatierra (south of Guanajuato), where friends were celebrating a “posada”, a traditional Mexican festival before Christmas.
According to the state prosecutor's office, unknown persons wanted to enter the celebration but the attendees asked them to leave. Later, they returned accompanied by men armed with rifles.
“It was at that moment that they began to shoot at those present, in addition to causing fire damage to various vehicles,” the prosecutor's office said last Monday, which does not detail who the attackers are or their motives, but reveals that they fired at least 195 shots. .
David Saucedo, a security consultant, told AFP that one of the organizers of the event, dedicated to this business, was the target of extortion by criminal groups.
He maintains that the area is controlled by the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, which emerged in Guanajuato and is dedicated to kidnappings, extortion, fuel and drug trafficking. He is an enemy of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Another version, put forward by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is that the crime could be due to drug consumption.
Guanajuato also has the fourth highest homicide rate in Mexico, with 61.8 per 100,000 inhabitants, against the country's average of 27.6, according to official figures from 2021.
Why did President AMLO's reaction cause criticism?
The reaction of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) after the crime puts on the table the problem of revictimization, manifested in prejudices that damage the honor of the victims of the cartels.
Asked a day after the massacre if drug use could be behind it, the president responded “yes.” He added that the use of narcotics in Guanajuato has grown more than in other states. “It is a phenomenon that must be analyzed and faced,” he said.
It was the second time in a short time that López Obrador linked fatalities to drug use. Two weeks earlier he stated that the death of the five students in Celaya occurred when they were buying narcotics, even though the case remains under investigation.
His comments have generated harsh criticism, especially from the relatives of those who lost their lives, such as Angélica Zamudio.
“They are young people who worked, who studied, who had children (…) You cannot re-victimize them like this. It is adding salt to the wound of all families,” highlighted the aunt of one of the deceased.
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