Eight people were shot and killed in an armed attack on a nightclub in Jerez, a city in north-central Mexico at the heart of a region plagued by drug cartel violence, reports said on Sunday (January 29th). local authorities.
Heavily armed men opened fire in the night from Friday to Saturday in this establishment located in the state of Zacatecas about 670 km north of Mexico City.
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Six people died at the scene, two succumbing to their injuries while receiving medical treatment.
Musicians, customers and employees of the nightclub are among the victims, according to local media.
Five gunshot wounds were still hospitalized on Sunday.
Escalation of violence
Violence in Zacatecas state last year displaced hundreds of civilians.
It stems in particular from a rivalry between the two most powerful cartels in the country, Jalisco Nueva Generacion and Sinaloa.
Mexico has recorded more than 340,000 murders and 100,000 missing since the 2006 launch of a militarized offensive against drug traffickers.
One of the architects of this offensive, the former Minister of Security Genaro Garcia Luna, is currently on trial in court in New York for alleged complicity with the Sinaloa cartel of Joaquin Guzman.
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