• ATTACK: Heavily armed men who claimed to be part of the organized crime group known as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) launched a violent attack against a police station in the town of Villagrán (pop. 58,000) in the central state of Guanajuato killing three officers and one soldier.
• PSYCHOSIS: “There’s psychosis (among the officers) like it would happens to any person. But they are working hard at 100% percent”, said a local police commander who asked to remain anonymous. He added that during the attack at least three other officers and one local judge were kidnapped.
• BATTLEFIELD: Located just between the cities of Salamanca and Celaya that have seen murder rates going up since 2018, Villagrán has been at the center of a dispute between the CJNG and a local gang known as the Cartel de Santa Rosa de Lima that had as its original activity fuel theft.
• INDUSTRY: Seat of one of Mexico’s most important industrial corridors in the Bajío region, the area around Villagrán is the seat of important car manufacturing plants: Mazda in Salamanca and Honda in Celaya; the US Department of State has no travel restrictions to Guanajuato.
