5 women, 3 men shot dead in the street in Mexican cartel stronghold

Gunmen shot dead eight people in Mexico’s most violent state, authorities said Sunday.

The five women and three men, who have not been identified, were killed in the street on Saturday night in Guanajuato, the prosecutor’s office said. The gunmen have not been caught, authorties said.

Guanajuato is a thriving industrial hub and home to several popular tourist destinations, but it is also considered Mexico’s most violent state, according to official homicide statistics.

The shootings took place in the municipality of Cortazar, where in 2023 gunmen stormed a water park and killed seven people, including a child.

The National Guard arrested on Sunday a man in Guanajuato identified by local media as the leader of hitmen for the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel.

Violence in Guanajuato is linked to ongoing conflict between the Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the Jalisco New Generation cartel, one of the most powerful in the Latin American nation. Last week, the Trump administration formally labeled eight cartels as terrorist groups, including the Jalisco cartel. 

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.

Recent violence in Guanajuato

Last month, security forces clashed with gunmen in Guanajuato, leaving 10 suspected criminals dead and three police officers injured.

In December, eight people were killed and two others wounded after gunmen pulled up to a roadside stand in Guanajuato and opened fire on customers and bystanders.

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.

Drug-related violence has seen more than 480,000 people killed in Mexico since the government deployed the army to combat trafficking in 2006, according to official figures.