Hitmen Murder 20 Mexicans in a Cockfight Arena in Zinapecuaro

The Attorney General of the State of Michoacan reported that 20 people were shot to death by gunmen in Zinapecuaro Municipality, where a clandestine cockfight was taking place on Sunday night.

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The massacre occurred around 10:30 p.m. local time in the Las Tinajas neighborhood. The first investigations show that men armed with assault rifles entered the cockfight arena ("palenque") to shoot at the attendees, who were probably members of a rival criminal group.

Until Sunday, the Forensic Medical Service (Semefo) had managed to identify the lifeless bodies of 16 men and three women. Local paramedics reported to the 911 emergency service that they treated several injured people. So far, however, only five citizens have agreed to be admitted to regional hospitals.

Motorists traveling on the western federal highway on Sunday night reported that an armed group - probably the same one that attacked the palenque - forcibly seized a passenger bus and a cargo van to block the highway's tollboth for over an hour.

The tweet reads, "An armed command executed those attending a clandestine palenque in Las Tinajas, Zinapecuaro. Twenty deaths and several injured. It was not a shootout between the attendees but an execution."

Currently, criminal cartels such as Los Correa, Jalisco New Generation, the New Michoacan Family, and Knights Templar operate in Michoacan. They fight each other to control illicit activities such as extortion, kidnappings, and methamphetamine production and trafficking.

Recently, their dispute over territories prompted several massacres in this Mexican state, where at least 484 intentional homicides have occurred so far this year.

During the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), however, the number of homicides in Mexico has been gradually falling from 34,690 murder victims in 2019 to 33,308 deaths in 2021.