Lorena Figueroa

El Paso Times

Six men were executed, including five in a barbershop, in two separate incidents reported minutes apart Wednesday morning in another wave of violence that has hit Juárez, authorities said.

With these homicides, there have now been at least 62 slayings in October, with most of them being execution-style killings. That makes October one of the deadliest months in the past four years, according to reports.

The first of Wednesday’s fatal events happened at 10:14 a.m. when a man in his mid-30s was shot several times on José María Arteaga Street, near the intersection of Ramón Rayón Street, in the Barrio Alto neighborhood in downtown Juárez, the Chihuahua attorney general’s office said.

Agency spokesman Alejandro Ruvalcaba said the man died at the scene.

State investigators found seven 9 mm shells scattered around the victim’s body, he added.

A 12-year-old boy also was shot in the attack and taken to a hospital with at least one gunshot wound, Ruvalcaba said. Authorities didn't know whether the boy was accompanying the slain man or was a bystander.

Ruvalcaba said that at about 10:59 a.m., the agency received a report of a shooting inside a barbershop on Zaragoza Boulevard near the Ciro Galeana Street in the Terrenos Nacionales neighborhood in south Juárez.

Inside the shop, officials found the bodies of five men who had been fatally shot, he said.

Ruvalcaba did not have any other details on the shooting because state investigators were still working at the scene. Juárez news media identified the barbershop as Poke’s and the victims as men between 25 and 35 years old.

The number of homicides had not been as high since May 2012, when 72 slayings were reported, according to reports from the Mesa de Seguridad y Justicia de Juárez, a civic organization that works with authorities on strategies to reduce violence.

Data show that from June 2012, when slayings dropped to 48, the number of monthly homicides began decreasing drastically to as low as 17 a month until last year.

In 2016, however, homicides increased sharply in July with 51 slayings after an average of 30 each month since the start of the year. In August and September there were 56 slayings each month, according to reports by the Chihuahua attorney general’s office.

The surge in execution-style deaths and shootings in broad daylight are related to disputes over small-scale drug dealing of crystal methamphetamine and seizures of the drug, Ruvalcaba said.

But the increased violence also coincides with political changes going on in Mexico, experts have said.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, Mexico’s ruling party, was booted from power in Juárez and Chihuahua during June elections. Juárez elected independent Mayor Armando Cabada, while Chihuahua state Gov. Javier Corral of the National Action Party, or PAN, carried the state. Cabada and Corral took office earlier in October.

Early this week Cabada met with representatives of the Mesa de Seguridad to talk about the increase in violent deaths in the city and strategies to reduce them.

Among the strategies is the return of mixed police units to patrol the city as they did during the most violent years in Juárez.

The units are made up of local, state and federal police. They began patrolling the city last weekend, Cabada said.

Lorena Figueroa may be reached at 546-6129; lfigueroa@elpasotimes.com; @LFigueroaEPT on Twitter