On Sunday October 24, 2010, four armed men burst into a drug rehabilitation center in Tijuana, Mexico killing thirteen people. A survivor said that the gunmen came in and told everyone to lie down on the floor and started shooting them, with the majority of the victims being high school students. The motives for these attacks are not known but in the past attacks on rehab centers were the cartels targeting rival gang members in rehab. This is the first attack of its kind in Tijuana although it is more common in Juarez where several of these attacks have taken place.
This happened during a relatively quiet period where the city has seen little drug and gang violence in the past few months and has even been called a success story by President Felipe Calderon. The murder rate has steadily gone down since its climax in 2008, but these recent praises of Tijuana have seemingly encouraged the cartels and gangs. Almost to undermine Calderon, violence has spiked in the past two weeks with beheadings, bodies hanging from bridges, and other random acts of violence.
This is the second mass murder of the weekend. On Friday night gunmen attacked the birthday party of a 15-year-old boy killing 14 in Juarez. Around 50 people gathered, at two separate houses, for the teenager’s birthday with the majority of the victims being high school students. Police have not found out who is responsible for the attacks or a motive.
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