TUXTA GUTIERREZ, Mexico (AP) — A family of six, including three children, was shot to death Friday in a town plagued by paramilitary violence in Chiapas state on Mexico's southern border.
Julio Pérez, the mayor of Pantello in Chiapas state, said the killings happened on Friday and called it a “massacre” as two paramilitary groups suspected of being backed by drug cartels fight for control of the town.
It was the latest in a series of mass murders in Mexico in which hitmen have killed entire families.
Gunmen broke into a home in the north-central state of Guanajuato on Sunday, killing four women and two children.
The states of Chiapas and Guanajuato, which border Guatemala, have been hit by bloody gang wars in recent years.
Local media reported that armed men entered a house in the city of Leon in Guanajuato state looking for a male family member, and when they discovered he had already fled, they killed the woman and child.
The Guanajuato murders attracted particular attention because five National Guard members were seen on security camera footage entering the home five minutes before the murders took place, and leaving the house carrying large black plastic bags just before the killer arrived.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday that five officers from the paramilitary National Guard had been detained for suspected violations of military discipline and were being held in the Defense Ministry, but refused to provide further details about the incident.
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