The Government of Guanajuato state reported that on Saturday, around 10 men were killed when gunmen opened fire on a drug rehabilitation center in the city of Irapuato.

Guanajuato, located in central Mexico, has turned out to be among the main hotspots for gang violence which President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has vowed to eliminate.

Despite lockdown directives imposed to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, murders carry on to test the record levels.

In a statement released on Saturday, the state government specified that based on initial findings, three assailants who remain unidentified shot up the said rehabilitation center in Irapuato.

Irapuato is known as an "industrial hub south of Guanajuato, the state capital. Police are investigating the case of the three men who, according to the state government, were shot dead in a separate occurrence, on also on Saturday, in Celaya.

Governor's Apology

Drugs rehabilitation centers, since the early 2000s, have already been a target of criminal gangs that conduct territory wars for the operation of drug dealings.

In 2017, at least 14 people were killed and several others wounded when a group of suspected gangsters attacked a drug rehabilitation center located in the northern city of Chihuahua.

Meanwhile, a Mexican state governor recently roiled by conflicts between demonstrators and security forces, on Saturday, apologized for the abuses which police carried out against people demonstrating against a man's death in police custody.

Specifically, governor of Jalisco's western region, Enrique Alfaro said he was shocked that on Friday, police in Guadalajara had beaten several demonstrators protesting over Giovanni Lopez's death.

He said it embarrasses and distresses him. He also added that as a governor and a man from Jalisco, the occurrence even greatly pains him.

The death of George Floyd helped drive protests over the fate of Lopez, the man who died in Jalisco last month, in police custody after municipal officers allegedly detained him for now wearing a face mask to control the spread of COVID-19. 

Not a New Occurrence

In 2011, there had already been reports about drug gangs in Mexico, targeting rehabilitation centers. On that same year, a Mexican news agency reported about five vehicles that pulled up outside the Torreon-based Victory Center for Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation.

The report said gang composed of heavily-armed men went out of the vehicles and rushed into the rehab's clinic. Systematically moving from one room to another, the gangsters shot fire on each individual in sight that killed 13 people, including workers and patients.

Then, as fast as their arrival at the scene, the assailants reportedly climbed back into the vehicles and rushed out to flee the area.

Even though such extreme violence at a rehab center may appear inexplicable, attacks on these facilities are turning out to be a typical phenomenon in Mexico. 

Mass shootings and attacks like these, with a group of people who are unable to defend themselves and indiscriminately shot, were also frequent in Torreon. Still, usually, the incidents had taken place in bars.

Before the killings in Victory Center, there had also been at least given other occurrences that killed over 50 people since the start of 2010.

In most occurrences, official reports held the Sinaloa Cartel responsible for the murders. The said cartel has been involved in year-long combat with Zetas, a Torreon-based group, in control for the territory.

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