Gunmen Attack a Children’s Party in Mexico. Eight Kids Shot

Armed men opened fire on families gathered at a neighborhood park in central Mexico on Tuesday night, killing one person and wounding ten others — eight of them children between 6 and 10 years old. The attack took place around 10 p.m. on Calle 5 de Mayo in the Renovación neighborhood of San Francisco del Rincón, a city of about 130,000 in the state of Guanajuato.

According to witnesses, gunmen carrying long weapons arrived and shot indiscriminately at people attending what local media described as a children’s party. The attackers fled on motorcycles. Neighbors rushed wounded children to the local community hospital before ambulances arrived.

The municipal government confirmed a 36-year-old man died. Of the eight wounded children, three have been discharged; five remain hospitalized in stable condition. Two adults were also injured.

A state under siege

The state attorney general’s office confirmed 11 total casualties — one dead, ten wounded — and said forensic teams were processing the scene. Governor Libia García Muñoz Ledo called the attack “absolutely unacceptable” and ordered the security and health secretariats to provide immediate care and accompaniment to the victims’ families.

Mayor Toño Marún called it a “cowardly act” and vowed it would not go unpunished. The Guanajuato state intelligence task force was convened to review security measures in the area.

Pattern, not anomaly

This is the second mass shooting targeting civilians in Guanajuato in less than a month. On January 25, gunmen opened fire at a soccer field in Salamanca, killing 11 people and wounding 12. Authorities linked that massacre to the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, whose operatives targeted rivals affiliated with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Guanajuato remains Mexico’s most violent state. It recorded 222 homicides in January 2026, according to local media counts, and 2,035 murders across all of 2025 — down from a peak of 3,300 in 2020 but still accounting for roughly 11% of all homicides nationwide. The violence is driven by a territorial war between the two cartels over drug trafficking routes and fuel theft from a major Pemex refinery in Salamanca.

The state’s security crisis casts a shadow over Mexico‘s preparations to co-host the FIFA World Cup later this year. Guanajuato borders Jalisco, where several matches are scheduled. At the park on Calle 5 de Mayo, reporters found bullet holes in playground equipment and an empty silence where children used to play. This is part of The Rio Times’ daily coverage of Mexico affairs and Latin American financial news.

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