EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The President of Mexico says a confrontation between unnamed parties led to a Tuesday night shooting in the city of Irapuato that left at least 11 people dead and 20 wounded.
“It’s a regrettable multiple homicide and it’s under investigation,” Claudia Sheinbaum said at a news conference broadcast on YouTube. “This case in reality was a confrontation. Regrettably, children died.”
Her comments were refuted by witnesses and analysts.
The Guanajuato Attorney General’s Office said a teenager and two women were among the dead and that a score of people were taken to hospitals. The agency said there could be additional victims because they may have been taken by others from the scene before police and ambulances arrived.
Videos posted on social media show men and women dancing in a circle at a Dia de San Juan (a celebration of John the Baptist) street celebration moments before the shooting. They include images of a toddler girl attempting to join the dance before shots ring out and a cell phone camera falls out of focus.
A woman can be heard yelling, “¡Mi niña!” (My daughter!)
No arrests have been reported as of Thursday.
Irapuato is one of the largest cities in Guanajuato, a state besieged by a protracted conflict between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and a local gang called Cartel Santa Rosa de Lima.
More tan 1,400 people have been murdered in the state so far this year, with local officials blaming most of the homicides on conflicts between criminals.
Guanajuato not only is the state reporting more murders in Mexico through the end of May but also has been the scene of 13 percent of all homicides in the country this year, according to Mexican government data.
Based on what can be seen in the videos, some Mexican commentators questioned Sheinbaum’s take of a confrontation between criminal groups.
“There is no confrontation. (The president) has been misinformed. It is a direct attack against unarmed people,” political analyst Arnoldo Cuellar told Radio Formula.
Guanajuato political influencer Arturo Villegas also questioned the gang-on-gang explanation.
“What happened in Irapuato, Guanajuato, was not a public safety event, it was blatant terrorism,” he posted on X.
A survivor told reporters in Irapuato that the street festival with religious origins is held every year on June 24 and had never experienced violence.
“We are not criminals, we are not drug addicts,” said another survivor interviewed by ImagenTV.
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