A half dozen gunmen burst into a casino in Monterrey, northern Mexico on Thursday, doused it with gasoline and started a fire that trapped gamblers inside, at least killing 53 people and injuring a dozen more.
Officials said the death toll to continue to climb in what appeared to be an attack linked to warring drug cartels, although there was no immediate information linking the massacre to drug traffickers. More than 80 people were in the casino when it was attacked.
“This is a night of sadness for Mexico ,These unspeakable acts of terror will not go unpunished” federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire said in a televised address.
Calderon tweeted that the attack was “an abhorrent act of terror and barbarism” that requires “all of us to persevere in the fight against these unscrupulous criminal bands.”
Nuevo Leon state Attorney General Leon Adrian de la Garza said authorities had located about 40 bodies “but we could find more.” He said a drug cartel was apparently responsible for the attack. Cartels often extort casinos and other businesses, threatening to attack them or burn them to the ground if they refuse to pay.
On his Twitter account, President Felipe Calderón condemned the mass killing. “With profound consternation I express my solidarity with Nuevo León and the victims of this aberrant act of terror and barbarity,” Mr. Calderón wrote.
“An act of terrorism has been committed,” said Alejandro Poiré, the federal government’s spokesman for security affairs. “This act of terror will not remain unpunished.”
The mention of “terror” has been a controversial one in Mexico’s drug wars, where officials have argued hard against terminology suggesting an insurgency. Since 2008, many feared that drug traffickers would resort to conventional terrorist methods after grenades were thrown into crowd gathered for Mexican Independence Day, killing eight and wounding 131. Since then, however, drug cartels have typically shied away from large-scale attacks on the public.
Until now, Monterrey was one of the safest cities in Latin America. But since last year, the city has become a battleground for two of Mexico’s most powerful drug trafficking organizations, the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, te=hay are fighting for control of lucrative local drug markets and drug routes to the U.S.
Last month, gunmen attacked a Monterrey bar with a reputation as a drug distribution center, killing 21 people, most of them bar workers. So far this year, more than 1,000 people have died in drug-related violence in the state of Nuevo León.