Eleven people, including a policewoman, were injured Sunday night when a car bomb exploded outside a municipal police station in Ojocaliente, a town in the state of Zacatecas.
Zacatecas Attorney General Cristian Camacho said Monday that authorities were investigating whether the attack was linked to the capture on Saturday of an 18-year-old man who is allegedly a sicario (hitman) for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). The federal Security Cabinet is collaborating with Zacatecas authorities on the investigation. No arrests had been reported as of early Monday afternoon.
Rodrigo Reyes, general secretary of the Zacatecas government, reported on Monday that 10 civilians and a female police officer were injured in the explosion on Sunday, which occurred as Ojocaliente residents were taking part in festivities honoring the town’s patron saint. The official said that 10 of the victims were in stable condition while one was in a “delicate” state but “out of danger.”
Reyes said that explosives were placed in a car that was reported as stolen in the state of Jalisco. They detonated at approximately 8 p.m. Sunday.
In addition to injuring 11 people, the explosion damaged 30 properties, including homes, and 13 vehicles, including police cars, according to Reyes.
The attack was the third carried out with explosives in Zacatecas in four days. Three police officers and one civilian were injured in the two other attacks, which were perpetrated on Thursday and Saturday of last week.
Ojocaliente Mayor Juan Manuel Zambrano canceled classes on Monday — the first day of the 2026-27 school year — in light of Sunday’s attack, while municipal government offices were closed to the public.
Reyes said that security in Ojocaliente had been beefed up, with army troops and members of the National Guard deploying to the municipality.
The federal Security Cabinet said on social media on Monday that authorities from all three levels of government were “reinforcing the security operation in the area to protect the population.”
A revenge attack by the CJNG?
The car bomb explosion on Sunday night came a day after an 18-year-old man was arrested on Saturday near the border between Zacatecas and the state of Aguascalientes.
In an interview with Radio Fórmula on Monday, Camacho said that “we’re not ruling out that yesterday’s attack was a reaction to that result.”
The attorney general said that the suspect had admitted to being a sicario for the CJNG. He also said that “everything suggests” that the attack in Ojocaliente on Sunday was carried out by that criminal group.
The CJNG is based in Jalisco but operates in virtually all of Mexico’s states. The cartel’s leader is now said to be Juan Carlos Valencia González, stepson of CJNG founder and former leader Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, who was fatally wounded in a military operation in Jalisco in February.
Zacatecas is known for violence, but homicides have declined by more than 50% this year
On Aug. 11, the federal government reported that there were 51 homicides in Zacatecas in the first seven months of 2026, a reduction of 53.2% compared to the same period of last year. The annual reduction in murders in Zacatecas was the fourth largest among Mexico’s 32 federal entities.
Earlier this decade, Zacatecas was one of Mexico’s most violent states, but it recorded the eighth-lowest homicide count among Mexico’s 32 federal entities between January and July.
There are, however, signs that the security situation is deteriorating in the state, whose location between the Pacific coast port of Manzanillo, Colima, and Mexico’s northeast border with Texas makes it a trafficking route for fentanyl and other drugs.
On a single day last month, the bodies of ten murdered men were found across three municipalities in Zacatecas. Five of the bodies were found hanging from a bridge in Pánuco, a municipality just north of Zacatecas city. Among the 10 victims were a former mayor of Sombrerete, Zacatecas; an official with the Fresnillo municipal government; and an ex-councilor in the municipality of Canatlán, Durango.
With reports from El Universal, Julio Astillero, Radio Fórmula, AFP, El Economista and El Financiero
