A Woman & Three Men Decapitated in Pénjamo, Guanajuato

"Itzli" for Borderland Beat

Four individuals, a woman and three men who were decapitated, found inside a home in Pénjamo, Guanajuato. 

Sometime before 7:00 PM on Monday, January 17, 2022 authorities received a call about a dead body being seen through the window of a home located at 7 Callejón Álvarez, in the Zona Centro of Pénjamo, Guanajuato, from a neighbor. The location is described as an urban zone only four blocks away from the town center's park.

Members of the Municipal Police, military, and National Guard arrived on the scene and discovered three decapitated men in one room and the body of a deceased woman whose hand and feet were wrapped with packing tape.

The following days authorities released the identities of the four victims, all of whom were all residents of Pénjamo:

Arturo Ulises Ayala Hernández, 20 years old, who was reported missing on Wednesday, January 12, having last been seen on Callejón del Prado.

Juan Carlos Rocha Reyes, 47 years old

Dorian, full name not released, 23 years old

Mayra Isabel Martínez Juarez, 27 years old, who is believed to have lived in the home where they were discovered

Cartels in Pénjamo

Once part of the battleground between the Santa Rosa del Lima Cartel (Cártel de Santa Rosa de Lima or CSRL), the Cártel de Jalisco o Guadalajara Nueva Generación (CJNG) has come to dominate this part of Guanajuato.

In fact, on Mother's Day of 2021 CJNG operatives handed out gifts in the municipality of Pénjamo; notably this is the only part of Guanajuato where this was said to have taken place in addition to gifts being given in nine municipalities of Michoacán and three in Jalisco. 

In June of 2021 it was reported that the CJNG controlled this area of the state of Guanajuato, waging a campaign against drug dealers that had not aligned with them, and that there were proven indications that the Sinaloa Cartel was present in the municipalities of Acámbaro, Pénjamo,León, and San Francisco del Rincón.

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Sources: Periodico Correo, El Sol del Irapuato, Bruno Noticias, Los Angeles Times, El Sol del Mexico