Violence continues to rock Irapuato, Guanajuato, where a commando of armed civilians attacked a rehabilitation clinic and the surrounding houses and businesses before making off with five kidnapped victims on the weekend.

It was the second such raid on an addictions treatment center in the city in three months.

Patients at the Beginning a New Life of Hope clinic were asleep early Saturday when five trucks carrying some 20 armed men began an attack at around 4:00 a.m.

The men kidnapped four of the clinic’s 31 patients and doused the building with gasoline and set it aflame.

They then proceeded to open fire on the neighboring houses, at one of which they kidnapped another victim, a 44-year-old factory worker named Jesús González Castillo.

They also burned a nearby auto repair shop called El Nazi, in which 12 vehicles were damaged. Upon turning the corner, they threw an explosive device at another house sending it up in flames, but it was empty and no one was hurt.

The attack was similar to one carried out in the early morning hours of December 4 of last year. That morning a commando of around the same number of armed civilians raided a different rehab clinic and kidnapped 26 youths from the facility as well as other people from nearby homes and on the street.

Irapuato is one of the most violent cities in Guanajuato, itself among the most violent states in Mexico. The state led the country in homicides last year and has already gotten off to a violent start in 2020.

Source: Infobae (sp)