Gunmen shot dead 14 people at a bar in the city of Minatitlán in the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz, authorities said on Friday April 19th, in one of the worst slayings to hit Mexico since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office.
The unidentified assailants opened fire on Friday night after coming to look for a man at a bar in the southeast of Minatitlán, a spokesman for the government of Veracruz said.
Seven men, five women, and a child died in the shooting, as well as another victim who passed away this morning. The incident occurred close to Minatitlán’s oil refinery, one of six run by state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). Three other people were injured, the state government said in a statement.
The motive for the killings was unclear, the spokesman said.
The man the gunmen were seeking was identified as the owner of a bar in the city, the state government said. The attack took place during a family celebration.
It was not immediately clear if the man owned the bar where the attack occurred, nor whether he was present at the time.
Hugo Gutiérrez, the head of public security in the state, said on Twitter that an operation had been launched to capture the people responsible for the killings. (But absolutely no arrests have been made in relation to this massacre so far).
The oil-rich state of Veracruz has been convulsed by gang violence and political corruption scandals for several years.
Over 650 crime-related deaths have been registered in Veracruz during the first 140 days of MORENA’s governor Cuitlahuac García administration.
TYT Newsroom with information from El Universal
