Twenty dead in a shooting between gangs in Mexico

nineteen people died on sunday night in Mexico in a shootout in a central state ravaged by gang violence. “The bodies of 19 lifeless people were found, 16 men and three women, with bullet marks” in the town of The Jarsat Michoacan stateaccording to a statement from the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic.

More people were injured and taken to hospital. According to the authorities, the police arrived at the scene of the massacre around 10:30 p.m. (04:30 GMT Monday), after receiving reports of an attack on a room that is often used to house illegal gambling in the cockfighting.

The federal authorities, who have not given any information about the reason for the shooting, are working “with the aim of arresting those responsible for these violent acts,” said the Secretary of Public Security of Michoacan On twitter.

Michoacan and the neighboring state of Guanajuato are two of the most violent states in Mexico, due to the territorial wars between rival gangs involved in drug trafficking and other illegal activitiessuch as trading in stolen fuel.

Michoacan It is also the world’s largest avocado-producing region, and threats last month against a US inspector who worked there prompted the US to suspend Mexican exports of the fruit for more than a week.

Precedent of reckoning

In February, between 10 and 17 people were killed in the same area, according to the Mexican media, in an attack that appeared to be a settling scores between rival gangs. It was “a possible revenge between groups (…) that depend on the same criminal structure known as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel,” said the then Undersecretary of Security, Ricardo Mejía.

The Government could not confirm the number of deaths in the massacre due to the absence of corpses, but at the scene of the events the DNA profiles of at least eleven people.

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According to official figures, more than 340,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since December 2006, when the Mexican government launched a controversial military offensive against the drug cartels. Most of these murders are attributed to settling of scores between criminal groups.

In early March, nine people were killed in an attack on a house in Altixco, in the center of the country. According to the authorities, the house had functioned as a drug stash.