Construction workers and miners: who were they and how the massacre happened in Tonalá, Jalisco

A group of people, between minors, men and women, they celebrated in the street of Emiliano Zapata street, almost reaching the junction with Rucias Negras in the municipality of Tonalá, Jalisco.

The celebration was violently interrupted when an armed group in a van arrived at the scene and opened fire. against the people who were there. Witnesses in the area assured that the attackers, who carried long weapons, boarded three other trucks to flee the scene, leaving behind a balance of 10 dead in the street and a minor who was in a house.

They stayed injured two other people, a woman and a minor, who were transferred for medical treatment.

Subsequently, a continuation to the outskirts towards Guadalajara airportHowever, authorities have not confirmed that this event was linked to the massacre in La Jauja, Tonalá.

The Jalisco State Attorney General reported in a brief statement that among the attackers, “So far, we only know that it was the occupants of a truck who opened fire with long guns on people at the scene.”

The Governor of the State of Jalisco, Enrique Alfaro, has not spoken yet before the violent events that took place last night.

Jalisco recorded a decrease in the number of intentional homicides, however, incidents of violence have not stopped. The civil organization Causa en Común has been tasked with following the “atrocities” reported by the media in all the states of the Republic. According to their accounts, In January 2021, 45 events of strong violence were recorded inside Jalisco, ranging from shooting to the discovery of underground graves.

With the closure in February, Jalisco continues to be the scene of violent acts of violence. In addition to what happened last night, In Tlaquepaque, there was also a shooting where five people were killed, there is also the case of the filming at the restaurant Los Otates and the discovery of 18 bags containing human remains in the municipality of Zapopan.

In its annual report, Causa en Común reported that by 2020, inside Jalisco, there were 736 atrocities which include massacres, lynchings, murder of human rights defenders and torture, among others. According to journalistic notes consulted by this organization, In the past year, 43 massacres and 499 clandestine graves have taken place.

In addition, the total number of victims resulting from these acts of violence is 816. This place Jalisco in second place in terms of victims of atrocities recorded in journalistic sources according to Common Cause. The state with the most casualties was Guanajuato, where the figure reached 1,002 casualties.

Faced with these events, the organization Causa en Común proposes to analyze these samples of violence from a psychological point of view and not only from a police point of view, because “The accumulation of violence and atrocities reflects serious pathologies which present a major social challenge.”

So that beyond counting the number of intentional homicides, it is also necessary to analyze the context and the way in which these crimes are committed in order to understand the behaviors and structures that allow them to occur.

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