Salamanca Package Bomb Updates

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat

On September 19, 2021, a package bomb was delivered to the Salamanca bar called Barra 1604. The package exploded when opened and left a toll of two dead (the manager and co-owner) as well as several injured.  For further details on the event, please see this post.

In local WhatsApp groups, messages allegedly from both the Cartel de Santa Rosa Lima (CSRL) and the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generation (CJNG) have been spread in regards to the bombing. Each claim they did not perpetrate the bombing but rather the other group did in order to ruin the cartels reputation and bring law enforcement heat down on them. 

In an interview with (CJNG’s favorite reporter) Azucena Uresti for Grupo Fórmula, Romero explained that setting up a business in Salamanca "is brave", since there is the derech de piso, or the regular collection of an extortion fee. 

Edgar Romero, who is the brother of the attack victim Mauricio Romero, sat down for an interview with Azucena Uresti for Grupo Fórmula. Edgar, who prefers to go by Eddie, spoke about the decision Mauricio made when he decided to open Barra 1604,  which opened only in May 2021, saying "Being an entrepreneur and daring to start a business of this nature is brave because we know that someone will come [to request] derecho de piso, or something like that, and everything seems to indicate that it was so."  

Derecho de piso refers to a regular extortion fee (de piso) demanded by members of organized crime on businesses within their “territory” as payment for their alleged protection. 

Eddie Romero warned of this type of extortion, saying "My brother and Mario were the victims, but the message was not just for them because we are talking about it now, right? This was a message to say that they are here, that they are still here, that they are not going to leave. It is a message meant to cause terror, to make us lock ourselves in our houses again because I believe that nobody feels safe when we see the National Guard or the Army. I believe that on the contrary, it makes us more paranoid and more afraid." 

“We are totally devastated, my family and I. It is difficult. However we want more than justice, we want peace for those of us who remain, for those who live in Salamanca.”

Eddie Romero said of whether law enforcement authorities are looking for the perpetrators, "If they are not, we have to do it ourselves. Of course I demand it. Of course I cry out for justice, but I cry out for peace and tranquility. That is what we want, that. Not only me, but many. We are many." 

Romero said he was concerned about the need to change lifestyles after the package bombing, because "Today being successful is the reason this happens. If you do well, it gives rise to this. We do not understand how you can live in a city, in a country, in a state, if you cannot reap the benefit of the thing you created through your own effort".

Then a Milenio article was published where they twice say the extorters were the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generation while citing information from relatives of one of the staff of the Barra 1604, interweaving the claim with quotes from the interview given by the brother of the victim, who they also say did not give those specific details. 

Journalist Amílcar Salazar Méndez writes for Milenio newspaper in an article released September 21, 2021 that “Relatives of one of the staff of the Barra 1604 bar revealed to MILENIO that two complaints were filed with the Guanajuato Prosecutor's Office, but there was no response. The extortion began seven months ago. The extortion fee for the restaurant in Salamanca to operate without any problems was 50,000 pesos per week. The messages came from people claiming to be members of the Jalisco Cartel - New Generation. In response two complaints were filed with the Attorney General of Guanajuato, but there was no response.”

Raymundo Gómez García, the president of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE) of Salamanca, said that extortion fee against businessmen have recently increased in the municipality and that they have already reported it to state authorities. 

He says “We have already been in communication with the state government in this regard, we had a course 15 days ago with the undersecretaries where we told them that all these types of actions had increased in this sector and that we were going to have prevention courses.” 

He commented that business extortion is an overall problem that creates the reputation of Salamanca as an financially insecure or unsafe city. He says this reputation then scares away investments, even from local consumers, so they want to close ranks in the business area. 

“We cannot say that there is not a problem of extortion, there is. I believe, also there are opportunists who in one way or another take advantage of the situation of our extortion vulnerability. I believe that they want to use that and see what they can fish out of us. And in other cases, they really are serious.” 

He commented that many businesses  choose not to file complaints to police with this type of crime, since they do not want to expose themselves or their families to retribution.

Milenio Sources: Narco Demanded $50 Thousand, Brother Interview, Salamanca Businesses Increase in Extortion, State and Federation Go After Perpetrators