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.
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 gunmen have not been caught.
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.
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.
