Eleven Killed in Shooting After Football Match in Central Mexico

Local authorities reported on Monday that eleven people were killed and dozens injured after armed gunmen opened fire on spectators following a football match in the city of Salamanca, central Mexico, on Sunday.

Armed individuals entered the community football field immediately after the game concluded in Salamanca, a small city of 160,000 people in the state of Guanajuato. Ten people died at the scene, while one person passed away later at the hospital. Among the injured were a woman and a child.

Mayor Cesar Prieto blamed organized crime groups for the violence and urged the national government to "re-establish peace, security, and stability" in his community. He stated, "We are facing a serious social breakdown. Criminal groups are trying to subjugate local authorities."

Four bags containing human remains were found in Salamanca the previous Saturday night, and six people died in two nearby communities on the same day. A bomb threat was also made last week at the state-owned oil company Pemex's refinery in Salamanca.

Although Guanajuato is an industrial and tourism hub, official statistics consider it the most violent state in Mexico. Much of the violence is linked to conflicts between oil theft rings and drug cartels—the Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. A search for the gunmen is underway.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has stated that the homicide rate fell to its lowest level in a decade in 2025 due to her administration's national security strategy, although experts have not fully accepted the reliability of the statistics.

Since the crackdown on cartels began in 2006, more than 480,000 people have died in Mexico. Over 120,000 people remain missing, many believed to have been forcibly recruited or kidnapped. Mass graves and unburied bodies are regularly discovered in the crime-ridden nation.