Guanajuato: Back to back bloody weekends leaves 36 dead

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat from El Debate

36 killed in 5 days

Guanajuato is a state in central Mexico with a population of only 6M people.   The upswing of violence and run away murder numbers, has primarily been in Celaya.  Celaya is its second largest city with a population of 400k. 

14 killed this past weekend, Saturday the 24^th and Sunday

The Attorney General of the State of Guanajuato (PGJE) reported that 13 of the 14 executed in Apaseo el Grande and Apaseo in Alto, between last Saturday and Sunday, belonged to criminal groups.

He explained that six people were burned in a van on the Queretaro-Celaya highway, and 8 other people murdered, one of them dismembered. In relation to the violent events that occurred during the weekend in Apaseos, he explained that the investigations reveal that there were 3 events related to organized crime.

He specified that on Saturday a group of five people were found dead with injuries produced by gunshot wounds to the head and a second group of six deceased people, found aboard an incinerated Odissey Honda, on the toll road. Queretaro-Celaya.

On Sunday, two bodies were found, with gunshot wounds, and shortly after another dismembered body were located in three plastic bags, located in three different points.

"The first 13 victims have been identified and it is possible to verify that they all belonged to criminal gangs, the prosecutor’s office in a statement.

He said that the person mutilated and found in plastic bags is yet to be identified.  The Attorney General, Carlos Zamarripa, instructed the Criminal Investigation Agency and appointed a special group to be coordinated by the Deputy Attorney General for Special Investigation to assist in the investigation of the case.

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  Violent February 16^th weekend in Guanajuato leaves balance of 22 dead

The murders shook Guanajuato weekend before last, leaving a balance of 22 people killed in different events, including four burned in a car and five with the coup de grace.

In addition there were seven executed in Celaya and six more cases in the municipalities of Silao, Salamanca, Dolores Hidalgo and San Luis de la Paz, according to security authorities. On Saturday afternoon, five men were found dead on a dirt road in the community of Tenango el Nuevo in Apaseo el Grande, Guanajuato -on the return of the Queretaro-Celaya Highway-, all of the victims were bound with hands behind their backs, and shots to the head.

Two hours later a truck was located in flames and in its interior four people burned, in the Queretaro-Celaya toll road, at the height of the Los Sabinos community.

The Deputy Attorney General of the State Region "C" reported that firefighters extinguished the fire, they discovered four burned bodies.

In Celaya, on Saturday morning, a man and a woman were gunned down inside their home in the Linda Vista neighborhood. Almost at the same time a man without life was found with traces of violence who was handcuffed and wrapped in a blanket, on a dirt road that goes to the community of El Salitre.

Before noon on Saturday, the finding of a dead person and another injured in a shootout occurred in the Monte Blanco colony, without further details.

Previously, on Friday night, three men were killed in a gunshot attack at the Central de Abasto de Celaya, where a commando shot them and fled. Also on Friday, in San Luis de la Paz, three brothers were killed - Ivan, 21 years old; Efrain, 27, and Gustavo, 29 years old - and their bodies were thrown on a dirt road in the community of La Escondidita.

In Silao, a 30-year-old tortilla merchant was executed in the La Sopeña neighborhood. Several motorcyclists chased and executed him when he tried to hide.

In Salamanca, a 57-year-old farmer was found lifeless with a bullet impact on farmland in the town of Mancera; On the same Friday, a female police officer in Dolores Hidalgo was shot several times as she was traveling in her vehicle.