Eight Drug Cartel Members Killed in Gunfight in Mexico

Local authorities in Mexico announced that a gun battle between gang members resulted in the deaths of at least eight people and one injury on Wednesday in a mountainous area of Chihuahua state in northern Mexico. The state's attorney general's office stated that "the shooting occurred in Guachochi, one of the largest cities in a remote mountainous region inhabited by the indigenous Tarahumara ethnic group." According to the official statement, eight bodies were found at a crossroads, three of which were burned, along with an injured person who was transported for medical care. Authorities also discovered two burned trucks. Local media reported that the confrontation involved competing groups from the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico, and it is believed that among the victims were local leaders of a criminal organization. The Tarahumara Mountains, which are on a drug trafficking route to the United States, have experienced violence related to drug trafficking for years. According to press reports, clashes have intensified in recent weeks in Guachochi, forcing many residents to leave the city, which has a population of about 14,500. It is noteworthy that Mexico has recorded more than 350,000 homicides, most attributed to criminal organizations, since the launch of a controversial military strategy to combat drugs in 2006.