Seven young people killed in the church event

Seven Mexican youths were shot at a party organized by the Catholic Church in the central state of Guanajuato.

Gunmen opened fire on a group of people who are left on the central square of the village of San Bartolo de Berrios after an event organized by the local parish.

Eyewitnesses said that the attackers had driven directly to the village square in the early hours of Monday and dozens of shots were fired randomly.

The authorities have not yet said what the motive behind the shooting was, but messages that have been scribbled on signs that have been left at different locations in the area seem to indicate that it was performed by the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel.

While attacks at night clubs, bars and rooster fights are not unusual in Mexican states struck by cartel violence, an attack on an event was rare organized by the Catholic Church.

The episcopal conference of Mexico, which represents the bishops of the country, condemned the fatal shooting and said that it “cannot remain indifferent to the spiral of violence that injures so many communities”.

The local archbishop, Jaime Calderón, has also issued a statement that blames the attack for a fight for territory between rival cartels.

Guanajuato, where San Bartolo de Berrios is located, had the highest number of murders on a state in Mexico in 2024 with a total of 2,597 murders.

Both the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel are active in the state and are locked up in a deadly battle for control over territory.

While the two groups are involved in extortion and drug trafficking, they have also increasingly tapped pipelines that run through the state with gasoline from refineries to large distribution points.

The practice of stealing and selling fuel on the black market – known as Huachicoleo – is an important source of income for the criminal gangs in the region.

In their struggle for territorial control, the gangs often try to spread fear in the midst of the locals to guarantee their silence and compliance.

Bloody shootings such as those in San Bartolo de Berrios and the subsequent representation of threatening messages are a particularly brutal way in which gangs are used to show that they have been extended to a certain city.

Residents of San Bartolo de Berrios said they had heard about 100 shots in the early hours of Monday within minutes.

They said that the scene on the central square looked like “a massacre” with the bodies of the seven young people, two of them under the age of 18, spread over the sidewalk.

Until now, no arrests have been made in connection with the attack.