May was the most violent month of the year so far in Jalisco, with 79 reported homicides. And June hasn’t started any better, with six bodies discovered in Tonala in the early hours of the month’s first day.
The bodies of four men were discovered Wednesday in a tunnel running under the Periferico Nuevo, while two others had been dumped in an empty lot in Colonia Loma Bonita. All had their eyes bandaged and had been shot in the head. Police say criminal organizations were responsible.
Jalisco Attorney General Eduardo Almaguer denied reports this week that the state now has the third highest murder rate in Mexico (he claims it is in 13th place), but admitted “concern” over the spike in violence in recent weeks, He attributed many of the 346 murders reported in the first five months of 2016 to “ajustes de cuenta” (settling of scores) between crime gangs.
Almaguer also acknowledged that car theft, bank heists and assaults on bank customers have soared this year.
Cardinal José Francisco Robles Ortega, the archbishop of Guadalajara, said the high murder rate in the state was “grave,” regardless of whether most were connected to narcotics trafficking. He called for greater “collaboration” among society, especially within the family nucleus, to prevent such horrors.