An armed attack took place on the night of Friday, May 2, at a private party in the palapa Las Jardineras de Wendy, about 13 kilometers from Villahermosa, Tabasco, leaving five people dead, including a 16-year-old teenager, and at least four injured. Five armed civilians arrived in a white vehicle, violently stormed into the celebration where about 40 people had gathered at a family pool for a birthday party.
A witness who lost her brother and nephew during the shooting recounted that among the dead was the birthday celebrant. Some attendees mentioned that the hitmen fired at close range before fleeing the scene. Subsequently, elements of the National Guard, Mexican Army, State Police, and investigative agents deployed a search operation in the area, while forensic experts from the State Attorney General’s Office collected the bodies and initiated investigations.
Although authorities have not confirmed the motive for the attack, social media has speculated that it could be related to territorial disputes between cells of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the group known as La Barredora in Tabasco. In other violent events, the body of a young man was found showing signs of torture and bullet wounds, as well as an attempted armed robbery.
The violence unleashed by criminal groups in the region has intensified the perception of insecurity among the residents of Villahermosa, the capital of Tabasco, according to the National Urban Public Security Survey from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi). 90.6% of the city’s inhabitants report feeling insecure due to organized crime’s dispute for control of drug and human trafficking from Central America.
