ZACATECAS: A car bomb exploded in front of a police station in Mexico overnight Sunday, wounding seven people, authorities said.
The blast happened in Ojocaliente in the state of Zacatecas, where Mexico’s two largest drug cartels are fighting for control of key drug-trafficking routes.
It was the third explosive attack in Zacatecas in less than a week, according to an AFP tally.
“The explosive was placed in a private vehicle and caused physical damage to the station and properties located nearby,” state government secretary Rodrigo Reyes said on Facebook.
Six civilians were reported wounded, Reyes said in an earlier post, adding that they were receiving medical care.
One police officer was also wounded in the blast, which damaged 13 vehicles, including two police patrol cars, he said.
Local authorities said school classes would be suspended on Monday and celebrations for the town’s patron saint festival were cancelled.
Zacatecas is key to the drug trade because it links central Mexico with the north and west of the country and features routes that are key to smuggling cocaine and other narcotics to the United States.
Horrific drug violence plagued the state for years, with bodies turning up and people going missing almost on a daily basis until relative calm set in.
But in July, five bodies appeared hanging from a bridge in the town of Pozos de Gamboa, about 75 kilometres (47 miles) from Ojocaliente.
The victims included a former mayor, civil servants and businesspeople from other parts of the state.
The killings drew the attention of leftist President Claudia Sheinbaum, who promised to arrest whoever was behind them.
She has deployed soldiers in violence-plagued states such as Sinaloa and Michoacan in response to threats from US President Donald Trump to intervene directly against the cartels in order to keep drugs from crossing the border into the US.
