The head of the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (Spanish abbr: SSPC) linked two car bombings Thursday in the central state of Guanajuato to an ongoing local turf war between two cartels.
Omar Garcia Harfuch explicitly blamed the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Spanish abbr: CJNG) and “a very local cartel of Guanajuato,” a possible reference to the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel (Spanish abbr: CSRL).
The CJNG, the CSRL and the Sinaloa Cartel are currently engaged in a three-cornered struggle for control of drug trafficking and other illegal activity in Guanajuato.
In the first attack, a car rigged with explosives detonated next to an unoccupied police pickup truck in a downtown area of the municipality of Jerecuaro in southeastern Guanajuato.
No casualties were reported but at least 15 buildings suffered extensive damage.
An hour later, a second car bomb detonated outside a police station in the town of Acambaro, about 20 miles southwest of Jerecuaro.
The blast wounded three municipal police officers, in addition to damaging the front of the station and shattering windows of nearby buildings.
Harfurch suggested that municipal police in Jerecuaro and Acambaro may have been targeted for acting either on behalf or against a particular cartel.
The car bombings were the first in Guanajuato since a 29 June 2023 attack killed a National Guard soldier and wounded nine others in the city of Celaya in the state’s southeast.
In that case, soldiers received a call about an abandoned vehicle with dead bodies inside. The bomb exploded when a soldier opened one of the vehicle’s doors.
Attacks against police officers in Guanajuato have escalated in recent months.
Three off-duty municipal police officers were killed at 1730 on Wednesday when gunmen opened fire inside the MicheIts bar in downtown Celaya.
The officers were the assailants’ intended targets.
Once an oasis of calm that attracted major multinational investment, Guanajuato has evolved into one of the most dangerous states in Mexico, with 1,885 homicides reported from January to June, the highest total of any state.
In addition to Celaya, cartel violence is especially intense in the cities of Salamanca, Leon and Irapuato, all of which host multinationals, but no part of Guanajuato is inviolate.
Foreigners rarely are targeted by the gangs. They are at risk, however, if they are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Only the most essential travel should be undertaken to Guanajuato.
Companies operating in the state should constantly review and, if necessary, upgrade physical-security measures and train personnel in procedural security.
Forays to local restaurants and bars to sample nightlife are discouraged in the strongest possible terms. Visitors to the state should patronize only bars and restaurants at business-class hotels.
Extortion approaches, especially those communicated in person, should be referred to security professionals, who should determine the seriousness of the threat and bolster the security of both personnel working at the site and the property.
Threats to vendors, and in some cases from vendors, also should be referred to security professionals.
Road travel in Guanajuato is dangerous, especially around Celaya and Salamanca. It should be curtailed to the extent possible, with no travel undertaken after dark.
The US Embassy has restricted employees from traveling on Highway 45D in Guanajuato and to points south. The no-go zone includes Celaya, Irapuato and Salamanca.
