One of the 18 people brutally murdered during a shooting spree has been identified as the mayor of a small, 4,300-person town in south-western Mexico.
Conrado Mendoza Almeda, the mayor of San Miguel Totolapan, his father, Gustavo Salazar, an American brother-in-law, and 7 other people have been named.
According to the BBC, the attack was attributed to the criminal organization Los Tequileros, and victims included police and councilors.
According to police, armed men stormed the town hall on Wednesday at 2:00 p.m., leaving the council building covered in bullet holes.
Social media has been flooded with graphic images of bloody bodies, and the mayor’s party has denounced the attack as a “cowardly assassination.”
Before entering the council building, it’s thought that the shooters targeted Medoza Almeda’s father’s house.
There have been reports of large vehicles briefly blocking a highway in the state of Guerrero, where the town is located, to prevent security forces from entering the city.
Tierra Caliente, an area of western Mexico that is violent and under the control of drug cartels, is where San Miguel Totolapan is located.
For control of the lucrative drug routes that go north through the Pacific Corridor, groups have been known to engage in conflict.
According to local media, the incident claimed the lives of 18 individuals while also injuring three more.
On Twitter, a video of the attackers sprinting through the street armed surfaced.
Shots and screams are audible throughout the street, which is normally rather calm.
The Ministry of National Defence said after the incident that army and naval personnel were being sent to the region to track out the shooters.
Evelyn Salgado Pineda, the governor of Guerrero, said she “deeply regrets” the deaths and is working with the locals to see that justice is done.
Just before the assaults, a video allegedly shared by members of Los Tequileros on social media announced their return to the area.
The criminal gang was active in Guerrero between 2015 and 2017 and had a reputation for making threats against local mayors. Raybel Jacobo de Almonte, the group’s head, was killed in an assassination attempt.
De Almonte, widely known as El Tequilero or the Tequila Drinker, is whence the group got its name.