Massacre in Mexico, 31 Killed in Seven Hours by Drug Gangs

Continued violence in the northern border state of Chihuahua, Mexico, left 31 people dead in just seven hours, while another 23 victims related to organised crime were registered in a 24-hour period across several other states.

Ciudad Juárez saw the largest massacre of 18 killed in one hour. All except the three murders in the border town reportedly occurred at a bloody time between 11:00 Thursday and noon Friday.

Four people were also killed in the same period in the state capital of Chihuahua. The other nine murders in this country occurred around 7:00 a.m.

Two minors, a 14-year-old and the other 15 were among the victims of Ciudad Juárez. Other victims in the border town were killed in several separate incidents involving at least three vehicle attacks, the Albanian newspaper broadcast.

Three women were also killed in a house in the Primero de Sepirembre neighbourhood, and four men were killed in a mechanical store.

In Chihuahua, all the victims were shot and killed in the streets of the city. The Prosecutor General's Office announced that one of the killed was a former police officer.

Police also discovered two semi-naked male corpses presenting torture signs in the Bocoyna municipality, located about 250km southwest of the capital.

According to the Milenio newspaper, the number of deaths of 54 citizens in Mexico marked yesterday the second most violent day of 2017 and 2018 to this day.

The painful picture coincided with the number of murders on December 19th and was exceeded only by 58 murders on June 23, 2017.

The killings in Chihuahua came only two days after the state governor declared that the government was committed to fighting crime this year.

“We have decided to make 2018 a year of security for Chihuahua and Ciudad Juárez, and we will do it by strengthening our co-ordination and also our police intelligence strategy, placing emphasis on dealing with drug gangs”, Javier Corral said.

But another 23 murders were reported yesterday in seven different states. Six dead were reported in the state of Veracruz. In the small central state of Hidalgo, police reported five murders, including two minors from the same family in the Tula municipality.

There were five murders in Guanajuato, three in Oaxaca, two in Guerrero, and one in San Luis Potosí.