As our nation mourns the loss of 50 innocent people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, another nation experienced a tragedy in May.
On May 22, there was a shooting at a gay nightclub in Xalapa, Mexico. Seven people were killed and twelve were injured. The gunmen arrived at the Madame club and shot people inside the club and outside of it. Seven other people, including a minor, were shot. They were taken to multiple hospitals in the area.
Checkpoints were set up all over the city to try and catch the attackers. No arrests have been made yet.
Telesur reports that the secretary of public security said that:
“…the killing was motivated by a territorial fight over drug sales, but LGBT activists protested, saying that they were hiding the homophobic aspect of the violence.”
Violence against gay people is commonplace in Mexico and Latin America.
Some people say that LGBT violence is rampant, but others say that Latin America is an accepting region. Activists in Mexico contend that the media is manipulated by the government. A local reporter said that the number of victims was higher than what was reported locally.
A local doctor also says that there were more victims than what the government reported. One doctor who works at a hospital nearby said that one of the victims was a 14-year-old pregnant girl who had wounds in her leg and her arm.
A witness entered the bar right before the shooting started. He hid in a cupboard while the attack was happening. He says three subjects entered the club; he thought at first they were police, but they were not. About ten to twenty seconds later, the shooting stopped and the place was silent.
This video talks about Mexico’s president making progress on gay rights:
