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Weekly Report - 1 September 2011 (WR-11-35)

Casino fire shocks Calderón into declaring national mourning

The Mexican government declared three days of national mourning after 52 people, mostly women, were killed when gangsters set fire to the Casino Royale in Monterrey in the middle of the afternoon of 25 August. It seems almost certain that the gangsters did not intend to kill so many people, only to intimidate the casino owners by destroying their property. The death toll, probably the second highest for a single incident (after the cold-blooded murder of 72 migrants in San Fernando, Tamaulipas on 23 August 2010 [WR-10-34]) appears to have shocked the government into changing its stance on organised crime. The government, which had previously argued that gangsters killed mostly other gangsters, now seems to be admitting civilians are also targets.

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