Nine unsuspecting civilians were killed in the gang terror. Two women, among others, were killed in an explosion of a Molotov cocktail that had been thrown inside a mini supermarket of the national chain Oxxo.
A neighbor of the neighborhood store writes in a neighborhood app: “I am terrified. My dogs barked, but I didn’t even dare to look for fear.”
A day after the violence in Juárez, gunmen in neighboring Baja California set fire to at least ten city buses in Tijuana, among others.
According to analysts, organized crime shows its fist with terror and wants to show that it is not to be messed with. Criticism of the Mexican government’s security policy is mounting. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) policy of ‘abrazos no balazos’ (hugs instead of bullets) is, according to critics, a paper tiger and does not lead to an end to the violence.
Security experts warn that the crime gangs could spread terror actions into sectors of the government.