The father of a murder victim and a woman, both protesters in a Mexico City march, engaged in a heated argument on Saturday over defacing public property during a protest.
The facade of the National Palace was painted with messages and slogans at the conclusion of a march to mark the sixth anniversary of the disappearance of the 43 students in Guerrero.
A man who said his son was murdered in Acapulco, Guerrero, confronted a woman who had contributed to the painting and told her in no uncertain terms that she and other activists had no right to graffiti the palace, the seat of executive power.
“You can’t scribble on it because it doesn’t belong to you,” he shouted.
The woman retorted that she could indeed deface the building before asking the man whether he cared more about a wall than a life.
“I came to fight for my brothers, for the 43 [students] from Ayotzinapa. … It’s not possible that you do this, … my son was killed. I care about Mexico, I care about my son, I care about the 43 [students] and the thousands of missing people. This [defacing the National Palace] is not the way to fight,” the man said angrily.
“They won’t listen to us this way.”
The female protester said she didn’t care that the National Palace was a historic place, as the man pointed out, and took umbrage at his declaration that he couldn’t respect the women responsible for the graffiti.
“Are you going to disrespect me?” she yelled at him.
Prior to the confrontation, the facade of the National Palace was defaced with messages including “it was the state” – an assertion that the federal government was involved in the students’ abduction and presumed murder – “justice” and “Ayotzinapa lives on.”
The building’s main wooden door was adorned with a large “+43” in red paint.
Earlier on Saturday, close to 1,000 people led by parents of the 43 missing students marched to the zócalo, Mexico City’s central square, to demand justice.
Moncada with the 56-kilo sailfish he caught last week.
A young Oaxaca fisherman proved last week that age is no barrier to skill, catching three enormous sailfish, each weighing more than 49 kilograms.
According to Field and Stream magazine, the world record for the largest sailfish ever caught is 100 kilograms. It was landed in Ecuador in 1947.
David Moncada, a 22-year-old from Puerto Escondido, caught the three sailfish last Wednesday and Thursday. The three fish weighed 49, 50 and 56 kilos each, the last fish being a personal sailfish record for Moncada.
Moncada, who comes from a family of commercial fishermen, is as comfortable with using the rod and reel as with simply using bare fishing line in his hand.
While his fishing trophies include impressive marlin — his own personal best marlin catch was a blue marlin that weighed just over 208 kilos — he also loves fishing for sailfish and dorado, which he seeks out for their size and coloring.
The Oaxaca fisherman with a dorado, or mahi-mahi.
After spending his youth on his father’s fishing boat, Moncada now boasts his own boat, the Cristal, which provides him with a living.
“I like just as much to go out looking for tuna,” he said. “This year it went very well for me, and I caught a total of a half-tonne of tuna just fishing by myself.”
On another occasion, Moncada said he caught 523 skipjack tuna in one go, catching them one after another using four fishing lines tied to his boat and two rod-and-reel setups.
Nevertheless, he is also an assiduous competitor in Puerto Escondido’s sportfishing tournaments, which is perhaps not surprising given that Moncada’s father, José Luis Moncada Sánchez, is also a recognized fisherman and frequent judge at various sportfishing tournaments in Oaxaca. David soon followed in his footsteps.
One event that probably clinched Moncada’s decision to become a fisherman like his father came when he was just 11 years old: he and his father fought a memorable battle on his father’s fishing boat to land a 305-kilo marlin.
A photo of him and his father showing off the catch at the time shows David proudly holding onto the fish that probably equaled father and son’s combined weights three times over.
Masquerading as a simple dried bean, garbanzos are actually a powerhouse of protein eaten all over the world. Its subtle flavor belies its role as the key ingredient in Arabic hummus, Indian chana dal, and a panoply of soups, stews and curries.
Dried and ground into flour, we find Middle Eastern falafel, the Sicilian fritters panelle and the East Indian sweet laddu. The simplest recipe consists of chickpeas soaked overnight, spiced and roasted or sautéed, eaten as a snack called leblebi in Arabic and delicious in any language. In some parts of Mexico, the green pods, guasanas, are steamed, salted and eaten like the more common edamame made from soybeans.
It was difficult to choose recipes as there are just so many. (And we won’t even talk about aquafaba — the liquid left after cooking chickpeas or in a can of garbanzos — that can be whipped like egg whites to make meringue.)
You’ll find dried chickpeas in bulk in almost every grocery store, in the produce section, bagged ones in the bean aisle and canned ones with the other canned frijoles. Chickpea flour is harder to find, depending on where you live; try a health food store or the “gourmet” aisle in a big grocery store. Called garbanzos in Spanish, they’re inexpensive and a good staple to keep on hand.
Try adding chickpeas to any simple soup or stew or sprinkling them in a salad.
If you haven’t cooked with chickpeas, try adding them to any simple soup or stew, like chicken noodle or minestrone, or sprinkling them in a salad. If you’re a toast or hors d’oeuvre aficionado, hummus is surprisingly easy to make. And the first recipe, for sautéed chickpeas, is an all-round winner.
While you can substitute canned chickpeas for cooked dried ones, for some dishes the results won’t taste quite the same. Garbanzos don’t need as much cooking as other dried beans, though (generally about two hours), and if you soak them overnight or for eight hours the cooking time will be shortened even more.
Crispy Sautéed Chickpeas
I love these for breakfast, but they’re good for a side dish with any meal. Using dried chickpeas soaked overnight will give you a crispier result than if you use canned ones.
1 (15.5-oz.) can chickpeas, rinsed, patted dry, or 2 cups soaked chickpeas
Pour oil into a large skillet; add garlic, chickpeas and turmeric and ginger if using.; Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until chickpeas are crisped and some have split open, 10–15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat; stir in herbs, if using.
Fried Chickpeas with Chorizo & Spinach
¼ cup olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2 cups cooked or canned chickpeas, as dry as possible
Salt & pepper
4 oz. chorizo, diced
½ lb. spinach, roughly chopped
¼ cup sherry
1- 2 cups breadcrumbs
Crema for serving
Heat broiler. Heat 3 Tbsp. olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Once it’s hot, add chickpeas in a single layer and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, shaking pan occasionally, until chickpeas begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Add chorizo. Continue cooking for 5-8 minutes until chickpeas are crisp. Using a slotted spoon, remove chickpeas and chorizo from pan; set aside.
Add remaining 1 Tbsp. oil to pan. Add spinach and sherry, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook over medium-low heat until very soft and liquid has evaporated. Add chickpeas and chorizo; toss quickly to combine. Top with breadcrumbs, drizzle with a bit more oil and run pan under broiler to lightly brown the top. Serve hot, topped with crema.
Classic Hummus
1 (15½-oz.) can chickpeas
1-2 lemons
1-2 cloves garlic
½ cup tahini (sesame seed paste), well mixed
¾ tsp. salt
Black pepper
Optional: ¼ tsp. ground cumin
3 Tbsp. olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Sesame seeds (for serving)
Optional: red bell pepper, fresh cilantro or parsley, chopped jalapeños
Classic hummus is surprisingly easy to make.
Drain chickpeas and rinse well. Juice lemons and set aside. Mix tahini, chickpeas, lemon juice, salt and pepper in food processor. Drizzle in olive oil. Process till creamy. Stir in any optional ingredients.
Carol’s Fantastic Chickpea Fritters
These are made with chickpea flour, also called besan flour. I’ve had them several times and they’re truly delicious!
1 cup sifted chickpea flour
Salt & pepper
3½ cups water
Vegetable oil for deep-frying
Put chickpea flour in large saucepan with a pinch of salt and beat in the water gradually. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring continually, for 5-10 minutes until mixture is thick and smooth. Stir vigorously to avoid lumps, covering your hand with a cloth if mixture spatters.
Pour mixture into a shallow baking tray or cookie sheet. Let cool to a slightly rubbery mass.
(Mixture should not stick.) Turn out onto a board and cut into strips 3-inch long by ¾ inch wide. Deep fry in hot oil until golden. Lift out with slotted spoon and allow to drain on paper towels. Serve hot sprinkled with salt and pepper.
Chickpea Fritters #2
These are made with canned chickpeas; a little easier with a slightly different flavor.
1 can (15.5 oz.) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
½ cup sliced scallions
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
½ cup flour
1 egg
1 tsp. salt
Olive oil
In a food processor, pulse together chickpeas, scallions and cilantro until a coarse paste forms. Mix in flour, egg, and salt. Heat ¼ inch olive oil in a large skillet over medium high. Add dollops of chickpea mixture to skillet,about 3 Tbsp. each, pressing to form patties. Cook until golden brown on both sides, turning once, about 5 minutes total.
Chickpea Salad
1/8 cup plain regular yogurt
1 Tbsp. mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
½ tsp. Dijon mustard
Salt & pepper
1 Tbsp. EACH minced fresh dill, parsley and cilantro, plus more for serving
1 (15-oz.) can chickpeas, rinsed
1/3 cup finely diced celery
¼ cup thinly sliced scallions, white and green parts
Combine yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper in small bowl. Whisk until smooth, add herbs, stir to combine. Set aside.
Place chickpeas in large bowl. Use a fork to lightly mash about 1/3 of them. Add celery and scallions. Pour dressing over salad, toss well. Let sit at room temperature at least 30 minutes before serving.
Janet Blaser has been a writer, editor and storyteller her entire life and feels fortunate to be able to write about great food, amazing places, fascinating people and unique events. Her first book, Why We Left: An Anthology of American Women Expats, is available on Amazon. Contact Janet or read her blog at whyweleftamerica.com.
Velasco, left, and Corral: accusations continue to fly.
Chihuahua Governor Javier Corral has failed to comply with an agreement with the federal government to deliver water to the United States, according to a high ranking foreign affairs official.
Roberto Velasco, head of the Foreign Ministry’s North America department, told the newspaper Milenio that Corral has failed to comply with a pact to send hundreds of millions of cubic meters of water north of the border from Chihuahua.
Corral has denied signing an agreement with the federal government but Milenio said it has seen a pact endorsed by the governor and Velasco.
The foreign affairs official said that one possible reason why Corral decided not to comply with his commitment is that he believes doing so would hurt his National Action Party at 2021 elections in Chihuahua.
Corral said last week that the northern border state is complying with its obligations to send water to the U.S. and that officials with the National Water Commission (Conagua) are to blame for the failure to keep up with Mexico’s water obligations.
But Velasco claimed that the governor has manipulated figures and that Chihuahua is illegally retaining water.
“It’s the responsibility of the federal government to distribute water equitably and we’ll continue down that path to comply with our obligations [to the U.S.] even though it doesn’t suit the political interests of the Chihuahua government and annoys Governor Corral. … It’s not fair for a state to monopolize water at the expense of others,” he said.
Velasco’s remarks came after Deputy Security Minister Ricardo Mejía Berdeja accused a family of walnut farmers, a group of onion farmers and politicians of controlling and monopolizing water in Chihuahua.
The water commission said in a statement that it had to divert water from dams in Chihuahua because it can only send water it owes to the United States from international dams on the border, as Corral proposed, under certain conditions which cannot currently be met.
Velasco noted that Corral is aware that his proposal is not viable because water in such dams is needed to supply border cities such as Reynosa, Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Acuña and Piedras Negras.
Conagua said that in order to comply with the water treaty – considered by many to be favorable to Mexico as the United States sends more water south of the border than it receives – it’s essential that Chihuahua meet its obligation to send 54.1% of the total water quantity that must be sent north of the border in each five year treaty cycle.
The state has so far only delivered 45.8% of the water that must be sent to the United States, the commission said.
Shield-bearing police meet bare-chested protesters in Mexico City Sunday.
A group of about 40 women clashed with police in the historic center of Mexico City on Sunday during a pro-abortion march.
Members of the Bloque Negro feminist collective along with victims of abuse departed the headquarters of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) – which was taken over earlier this month by a women’s group and turned into a shelter for victims of gender violence – at 2:00 p.m. but their march was soon blocked by a contingent of more than 600 police officers led by policewomen.
The confrontation between the two parties quickly turned violent.
With their path blocked, women threw Molotov cocktails at the police on “repeated occasions,” according to the Mexico City government. They also graffitied buildings and caused damage to a convenience store.
The women, some of whom wore masks that covered their entire faces, also confronted the shield-wielding police with hammers and prohibited electrical apparatuses, according to a government statement, evidently referring to electroshock weapons.
A female reporter was pushed against a wall of the National Museum of Art, the newspaper El Universal said.
Eleven police officers sustained injuries including burns during the clash and eight were taken to hospital for treatment, the government said.
The protesters said they were victims of police violence.
“They pulled my hair, they choked me with a green handkerchief I was wearing around my neck, they grabbed me by my arms and they beat me in the face and ribs,” said Érika Martínez, a protester and mother of a girl who was a victim of sexual abuse.
While the clash between the protesters and police was occurring, women occupying the CNDH headquarters removed furniture, clothes and paper and set the objects alight on Cuba Street to prevent any attempted police incursion into the building, where women and children are taking shelter.
Women occupying the building say that police vehicles frequently approach the building before turning around, conduct they consider to be a threat.
After being corralled in the street by police and prevented from leaving for four hours, the protesters were finally allowed to return to the CNDH offices.
The Mexico City government said it had identified the protesters who attacked police and vandalized property and that they would be dealt with in accordance with the law.
It said that the aim of police was to “accompany and protect” the march but the actions of the protesters placed themselves, the media and other citizens in danger.
There were also protests after a majority of Supreme Court justices voted in July against upholding an injunction granted in Veracruz that ordered the state Congress to remove articles from the criminal code that stipulate that abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy is illegal.
Abortion activists had hoped that the court would deliver a landmark ruling that would pave the way for the decriminalization of abortion across Mexico.
Mexico City and Oaxaca are the only states that have decriminalized abortion, the latter doing so in September last year.
At least 13 people are dead and 25 injured in Chiapas after a bus crashed Monday morning on a stretch of highway near the city of Comitán.
Civil Protection director of emergencies Elías Morales Rodríguez told the newspaper Milenio that the accident occurred around 5 a.m. when the bus, which belongs to Transporte de Pasaje “La Angostura,” crashed into a “fixed object” on the road in the municipality of La Trinitaria. Among the injured were 11 women, nine men, and five children.
The object was apparently a concrete wall at the side of the highway. According to one report, the bus’s brakes failed.
“It’s a lamentable accident,” he said. “We are checking to see if any of the injured require emergency-flight transport.”
The bus was operating between Tuxtla Gutiérrez and Motizintla, traveling on the La Trinitaria–Chimic section of the Comitán–Ciudad Cuauhtémoc highway.
Various rescue personnel spent the morning working to remove passengers from the vehicle and transferring the dead to a nearby facility for forensic investigation. The wounded were transported by emergency personnel to various hospitals in nearby Comitán.
The president and other officials address parents of the missing students on Saturday, the sixth anniversary.
For the first time, arrest warrants have been issued against soldiers and federal police in connection with the disappearance and presumed murder of 43 students in Guerrero in 2014.
The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) announced Saturday – the sixth anniversary of the Ayotzinapa rural teachers college students’ disappearance in Iguala – that 25 new warrants had been issued for the arrest of people who participated in and/or knew about the abduction.
Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero said that “those responsible for the forced disappearance of the 43 students … are fully identified” and will be prosecuted.
In an address to parents of the missing students at an event on Saturday, President López Obrador also spoke of the arrest warrants against soldiers and police.
“He who participated and it is proven will be tried, this is an advance, there will be no cover-up,” he said.
“The truth, the authentic truth, has to be known. That’s the commitment,” López Obrador said, pledging that there will be zero impunity in the case.
He called on judges to act with rectitude and not release suspects, many of whom have already been set free.
“We need the judges to help to advance [in the case]. There are a lot of problems in the judicial branch, they release suspected culprits for any reason,” López Obrador said.
According to the previous government’s official version of events – the so-called “historic truth” – the students, who had commandeered buses to travel to a protest march in Mexico City, were intercepted by corrupt municipal police who handed them over to a local gang, the Guerreros Unidos.
Gang members then killed the students, burned their bodies in a dump in the municipality of Cocula and disposed of their remains in a nearby river, according to the version of events presented by former attorney general Jesús Murillo Karam in January 2015.
But the “historic truth” was widely questioned and rejected by the current government, which established a truth commission and launched a new investigation into the case.
Former chief investigator Zerón has been accused of stealing more than 1 billion pesos.
The army has long been suspected of being involved in the students’ disappearance and parents of the victims have demanded it be investigated.
There is a large army base near where the students were abducted and independent investigations have found that members of the military were aware of the events of September 26, 2014. One theory is that the students’ bodies were burned in army incinerators after they were killed.
Omar Gómez Trejo, the special prosecutor in charge of the reexamination of the case, said that among the suspects currently being sought are “the intellectual and material authors of the disappearance.”
“These orders [arrest warrants] include police from various municipalities, federal police [and] members of the army,” he said.
Gómez said that current and former officials with the FGR and members of organized crime groups are also being sought. He didn’t reveal whether Murillo Karam was one of the officials authorities are seeking to arrest.
The motive for the students’ abduction and presumed murder has not been definitively established by the current government but Gertz Manero, who said earlier this year that the “historic truth” is over, said Saturday that the students were “victims who ended up in the middle of a battle of interests between drug trafficking forces.”
They were allegedly mistaken for members of a rival gang, Los Rojos, and there have been reports that there were drugs on the bus they commandeered. Heroin made with opium poppies grown in Guerrero has long been transported through Iguala en route to the United States.
Gertz Manero said the Ayotzinapa students were not the only people to have been killed in Iguala on the night of September 26.
“Nearly 80 people were massacred and hidden in Iguala by the different criminal groups and their official accomplices,” he said.
One former official being sought by authorities is Tomás Zerón, who was head of the now-defunct Criminal Investigation Agency at the time of the students’ disappearance.
A warrant has been issued for his arrests on charges of torture – many suspects were found to have been tortured and were released from custody as a result – and covering up forced disappearances.
Gertz Manero said Saturday that Zerón was in Israel and that the Mexican government has asked Israeli authorities for help to arrest him.
The attorney general also accused Zerón of stealing more than 1 billion pesos (US $44.3 million at today’s exchange rate) from the budget of the PGR, the FGR’s predecessor.
“Last year, when we started this investigation and discovered this enormous embezzlement, this individual fled the country,” Gertz Manero said, adding that after authorities obtained a warrant for his arrest they lodged an application for his extradition with Canadian authorities.
“But he immediately fled to Israel, a country which has been asked for its complete support. … Its authorities know very well what human rights violations mean and the responsibilities that executioners and torturers [must face],” he said.
Gertz Manero asserted that the previous government was “deeply infiltrated by crime and corruption” and that Murillo Karam was involved in the cover-up of the Ayotzinapa case.
Gómez said that Zerón must face justice and reveal why he did what he did. He said that a total of 70 arrest warrants have been issued in connection with the students’ disappearance. One Federal Police officer is already in custody, he said.
Several suspected members of the Guerreros Unidos are also in custody, including alleged leaders José Ángel “El Mochomo” Cassarrubias Salgado and his brother Sidronio Cassarubias Salgado.
Former Iguala mayor José Luis Abarca and his wife, María de los Ángeles Pineda Villa – who have been accused of being the masterminds of the students’ abduction and complicit with the Guerreros Unidos – are also awaiting trial in prison as are at least two municipal security officials.
There is at least one bright spot in a year of pandemic, lockdown, and economic instability: dog bites in Mexico are down by over 34%, possibly due to social distancing rules put in place to slow the growth of Covid-19.
“The place where dog bites occur most are in urban areas,” said Nibardo Paz Ayar, a medical epidemiological coordinator with the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS). “It’s where there are the most incidents — not necessarily in parks but on the street. So it’s thought that the decrease in bites is due to coronavirus social distancing restrictions keeping people at home.”
Whatever the cause, 2020 has been a better year for dogs and people getting along in Mexico. While just last week, 412 Mexicans reported being bitten by dogs, according to the National Epidemiological Bulletin published by the Ministry of Health, the total number of such cases so far this year is only 55,258. During the same period last year, over 84,000 people suffered dog bites, ranging from minor incidents to serious attacks.
These statistics appear to contrast with those reported by Mexico’s neighbor to the north: in the U.S., some states have seen sharp increases in the number of dog bites since the pandemic and shelter-in-place orders became a fact of life. An article published in June in the Journal of Pediatrics documented a three-fold rise in dog bites of children seen at Children’s Hospital Colorado since March. The city of Minneapolis recently instituted a new leash law after noticing that dog bites in March were up 80% from the same month last year.
Despite Mexico’s relatively good news, medical officials warn that dog bites are still a public health problem that can result in victims having to receive rabies vaccinations, major medical attention, and psychological counseling. Although the incident can last less than a minute, the physical injuries and mental scars from dog attacks can be long-lasting.
“For this reason, we carry out careful monitoring of these incidents although they are currently not the biggest [health] problem,” said a recent Bulletin report, which still ranks attacks by other types of mammals as more serious because of the diseases they can transmit.
“There are [victims] that develop symptoms of stress and anxiety,” says Arturo Barraza Macías, a researcher with the Pedagogical University of Durango. “The act of seeing a dog or hearing one bark makes them afraid. Many times, these incidents go ignored, and the emotional damage is not addressed.”
Paz said there is no statistical data tracking death rates from dog attacks. Only injuries and cases of rabies in humans are tracked. Victims of dog bites tend to be 22 to 44 years old.
Tracking of any kind of animal-caused injuries by the Health Ministry has only been going on since the year 2000, and it wasn’t until 2004 that dog bites were separated in statistical information, along with snake bites.
A National Guardsman at one of eight plazas cleared of protesters.
The National Guard (GN) led an operation on Sunday that evicted protesters at eight highway toll plazas in Nayarit.
In coordination with state police, a GN anti-riot team forcibly removed protesting farmers at one toll plaza on the Tepic-Mazatlán highway after they continued to refuse to leave after two hours of dialogue.
Farmers who say that they haven’t been compensated for the expropriation of land for construction of the highway have occupied the Trapichillo toll plaza since November 2018, charging cars and trucks 50 pesos and 100 pesos, respectively, to pass.
Ten farmers were arrested during the operation to remove them, according to the Nayarit Security Ministry, but none was injured.
The GN announced on Twitter that it had evicted protesters at eight toll plazas, stressing that dialogue was favored as the “first option” to solve the conflict.
“Thanks to the common sense of the people who were protesting we were able to carry out an operation without complications,” the security force said.
The eight toll plazas were Ruiz, Acaponeta, Trapichillo, Matanchén, Santa María del Oro, La Cantera, Compostela and Amado Nervo.
In addition to state police, the GN received support from the army, the navy and personnel from the Nayarit Human Rights Commission, the federal Security Ministry (SSPC) said in a statement.
The SSPC said that authorities carried out the operation with full respect for the protesters’ human rights.
A Nayarit farmers’ association is demanding that compensation be paid to 600 community landowners in the municipalities of Acaponeta, Ruiz and Tecuala. According to a report by the newspaper Milenio, the farmers’ group is asking for 300,000 pesos (US $13,500) to be paid to each of the landowners for each of the 14 years since the Tepic-Mazatlán highway was built.
But the company that build the highway, a subsidiary of Grupo Financiero Inbursa, has only agreed to pay 200,000 pesos to each landowner for the entire 14 years the road has been in operation.
Unhappy with the offer, the farmers have occupied toll plazas for months and in some cases years.
The Association of Road Infrastructure Concessionaires says that billions of pesos in toll revenue has been lost due to the protests.
Media reports suggest that a group of people occupying a toll plaza can collect more than 1 million pesos (about US $45,000) per day.
The Salamanca bar in which 12 people were killed Sunday.
Twelve people are dead and two are missing after an armed group invaded a Guanajuato bar early Sunday morning and killed patrons, a bartender, and female dancers.
Four women and seven men were declared dead at the scene. One other woman, found alive with gunshot wounds, later died under medical care.
They were among 31 murder victims in the state on Sunday, making it the second worst day on record this year.
According to official accounts, about six men arrived at the bar at dawn and without a word began firing at everyone inside. Officials offered no motivation for the crime but said that they believe the shooters took two additional persons from the bar against their will. Their identities have not been disclosed and their whereabouts are unknown.
Emergency officials arrived at the Cabaña del Toro bar, located in Jaral del Progreso, about 35 kilometers south of Salamanca, after they received a call around 6 a.m. regarding gunfire. Authorities have found spent shells of various calibers at the scene, and forensic tests confirmed that all 12 deaths were from gunfire.
Dozens of locals showed up at the bar Sunday morning trying to identify the dead.
