Bar Attack Leaves 5 Dead in the Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Area

"MX" for Borderland Beat

The bar, 'La Zertuche Clamateria', is now permanently closed in this location. Two other branches remain open.

Five men killed and four seriously wounded was the ending balance left this weekend during an armed attack at a bar in Guadalupe, a municipality of the Monterrey metropolitan area in Nuevo Leon. This is the first massacre reported in this municipality in 2021.

According to witnesses, the attackers arrived at the bar in two vehicles and began shooting at the victims. They then fled to the Miguel de la Madrid Boulevard, where authorities located a gray car that was likely used as the getaway vehicle.

The bodies were found between the entrance and behind the bar. The bar was celebrating its first year of opening and there were many people in attendance.

"I was drinking at the bar when I heard loud gunfire. I ran to hide and avoid getting shot," a witness said.

After witnesses called the emergency line, municipal police officers and paramedics from the Green Cross of Guadalupe and the Red Cross arrived at the scene. Paramedics confirmed that eight people were shot and that five of them were killed. Their names were not released to the public by press time.

Brazen attacks at business establishments are an usual occurrence in Nuevo Leon, and particularly in the Monterrey metropolitean area. Attacks at bars were more common in the early 2010s, when the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas were competing for control of this urban area.

Investigators say that the attack in Guadalupe was drug-related; the bar was reportedly had a punto (drug sale spot) of a local gang. Most of the murders committed in the Monterrey metropolitan area are driven by gangs competing over street corners and businesses to sell heroin, cocaine, and meth.

Several drug cartels have been reported in the area, including various Gulf Cartel (CDG) factions, the Northeast Cartel (CDN), the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), and even remnants of the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO).

Unofficial reports say that this bar attack was between the CJNG and the CDN.

GRAPHIC IMAGE BELOW 

Two of the five victims that were killed

More incidents in the region

In the municipality of San Pedro Garza García, considered the richest city in Mexico, several residences and cars were vandalized and had the acronyms of "CDN" painted on them.

The paints were made with red aerosol and were marked in at least five residences and three cars in the Villas de Santa Engracia neighborhood.

According to intelligence and police sources, the BLO has had a strong presence in the municipality of San Pedro Garza Garcia for several years and has not allowed other organized crime groups to settle. The head of the cartel in this plaza is José Rodolfo Villarreal Hernández ('El Gato').

Example of the vandalism done in San Pedro Garza Garcia. 

Sources: El Norte; Grupo Reforma; PulsoSLP; VxT; El Universal; Puente Libre