Guanajuato’s wave of violence in 2019 has continued into the new year with 213 murders recorded in just 15 days.

Statistics from the National Public Security System (SESNSP) reveal that Guanajuato led the country in murders in 2019 up to November with over 3,000. The state saw 265 homicides in that month alone.

The Guanajuato Attorney General’s Office said that January’s murders have occurred primarily in the cities of Salamanca, Irapuato, Celaya, León, Apaseo el Alto, Tarimoro and Jaral del Progreso.

Armed men killed seven people in an auto repair shop and scrapyard in Tarimoro on Wednesday afternoon and two men were murdered in a guesthouse in Celaya in an attack that occurred at the same time.

Security forces reported that armed attacks late Tuesday night left 11 people dead and two houses burned in Comonfort, Apaseo el Alto, Celaya, Salamanca, Jaral del Progreso and Irapuato.

The houses in Jaral del Progreso and Salamanca were both reportedly empty when they were attacked and burned. The one in Jaral del Progreso was said to belong to a police officer.

In the face of the widespread violence, Guanajuato Governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo said Wednesday that the National Guard must be on the streets patrolling rather than in their barracks if something is to be done about insecurity.

“It doesn’t do any good to have bases of operation with the soldiers inside them. We need them to go out and keep watch, to do operations, we need them to be out on 24-hour surveillance, not inside their barracks,” he said.

Sinhue said on Monday that he doubted National Guard Commander Luis Rodríguez Bucio’s claim that there are 4,150 National Guardsmen in the state and asked him to specify how many are actually on patrol.

Source: El Universal (sp)