Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Gang members kill at least 26
Suspects burst into a bar, blocked all the exits and then started a fire, Mexican officials said.
COATZACOALCOS, Mexico — Gang members burst into a bar, blocked all the exits and then started a fire that killed 26 people and injured about a dozen others, Mexican officials said Wednesday.
Authorities said the attack in the Gulf Coast city of Coatzacoalcos late Tuesday apparently was overseen by a man who had been recently arrested but released.
“The criminals went in, closed the doors, the emergency exits, and set fire to the place,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said at his daily news conference.
Veracruz state police said the attack targeted the “Bar Caballo Blanco,” or “White Horse Bar.” It advertised “quality, security and service,” private rooms for $7.50 “all night,” “sexy girls” and a pole dance contest. The bar is located just off a commercial street in Coatzacoalcos, a city whose main industry has long been oil and oil refining.
On Wednesday, relatives of the victims gathered anxiously outside state prosecutors’ offices with photos that could be used to identify their loved ones.
Those who had confirmation sat weeping in plastic chairs.
Vanessa Galindo Blas, 32, said her husband died in the fire. She sat shouting: “He didn’t deserve this. Why did they do this to me? I don’t to be here. I want to be with you.”
She said her husband, Erick Hernandez Galindo, 29, worked as the DJ in the bar and left behind three children.
Among the dead were two sailors from the Philippines.
Ramon Guzman, the agent for the ship Caribe Lisa, brought the passports for the two men who were on leave and had been unaccounted for.
“This is the most inhuman thing possible,” Lopez Obrador said.
“It is regrettable that organized crime acts in this manner,” he said, adding, “It is more regrettable that there may be collusion with authorities.”
Lopez Obrador said local prosecutors should be investigated because “the alleged perpetrators had been arrested, but they were freed.”
Gov. Cuitlahuac Garcia identified the chief suspect as a man known as “La Loca” and gave his name as Ricardo “N” because officials no longer give the full names of suspects.
Garcia said the man had been detained in July, but he was released after being turned over to the state prosecutor’s office.
“In Veracruz, criminal gangs are no longer tolerated,” Garcia wrote of the attack, adding that police, the armed forces and newly formed National Guard are searching for the attackers.
Garcia, in an interview with Milenio TV, said 23 people had died in the bar and three more had died from their injuries afterward. He said some of the remaining injured were in “very serious” condition and he left open the possibility that the toll could rise.
“It was a planned, cunning attack against that bar and the people who were inside,” he said.
He added that businesses in the city have suffered similar fires. He said arrests were made in previous cases, but state prosecutors didn’t act.
In a statement, Veracruz prosecutors denied having released anyone, saying “La Loca” had been arrested on two occasions but then handed over to federal prosecutors.
The executive branch in Veracruz and the prosecutor’s office have long been at odds, leading to complaints against prosecutor Jorge Winckler alleging omissions and obstruction, charges he has denied.
Anti-crime activist and businessman Raul Ojeda said the attack had all the hallmarks of an unmet demand for extortion payments.
“They have been threatening all the businesses like that,” Ojeda said. “The ones that don’t pay close down or pay the consequences, as in this case.”
He said the Zetas, Jalisco New Generation cartel and other local gangs are fighting for control of the city.
The attack, along with the killing of 19 people in the western city of Uruapan earlier this month, is likely to renew fears that the rampant violence of the 2006-2012 drug war has returned.