At least 19 people were killed, and another three were injured on Wednesday after unidentified gunmen broke into a government building and opened fire in the city of San Miguel Totolapan in the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero.
The victims include Mayor Conrado Mendoza and his father, himself a former city administrator, as well as several other city officials and security personnel. Bystanders were also killed by stray bullets.
Guerrero has become notorious for violent drug conflicts. The state’s public security authorities said that at least 100 agents were sent to restore peace in the area after the massacre, “in addition to military and civil personnel.”
Though authorities have been tight-lipped on the alleged perpetrators, the Mexican press has identified the local Los Tequileros gang as being responsible.
Drug violence has become the norm in Mexico over the last decades, and deaths have increased since the country declared its war on drugs. President Andrés Manuel “AMLO” López Obrador, once a supporter of a “no bullets” security policy, has recently been questioned for championing a more militarized agenda.