A fire at a drug rehabilitation facility in San Jose Iturbide, Guanajuato, Mexico, resulted in the deaths of 12 individuals and injuries to at least three others in the early hours of Sunday, June 1, as reported by authorities. Mexican media sources indicated that the victims were locked inside the center when the fire started.
The municipal government has expressed condolences to the families of the deceased and has committed to assisting with funeral expenses. Officials are continuing their investigation into the cause of the fire at the privately managed rehabilitation center.
The Guanajuato state prosecutor’s office has stated that experts are collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses to determine the cause of the incident. A woman was seen lighting candles at the site of the rehabilitation center in the aftermath of the event.
Drug rehabilitation centers in Mexico, particularly those privately operated, are often described as abusive, clandestine, unregulated, and lacking sufficient funding. These facilities have been previously targeted in similar incidents, frequently becoming venues for violence involving competing criminal groups.
Guanajuato has been a focal point in a long-standing and violent territorial conflict between the Jalisco New Generation cartel and a local faction known as the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel. The state, known for its industrial and agricultural activities, has the highest homicide rate in Mexico.
Last month, investigators uncovered 17 bodies in an abandoned house in Guanajuato during a search for missing persons. This discovery came just days after the shooting of seven individuals, including children, in the same region.
Drug cartels have a history of targeting suspected rival street-level dealers taking refuge in rehabilitation centers. Authorities suspect that cartels may also execute patients unwilling to join their operations.
In April 2025, gunmen attacked a drug rehab clinic in Sinaloa state, resulting in at least nine deaths. In July 2022, six people were shot and killed at a rehabilitation center near Guadalajara, western Mexico.
Two years before the Guadalajara event, heavily armed individuals stormed a rehabilitation facility in Irapuato, central Mexico, killing 27 people.
Nineteen people were killed in 2010 in an attack on a rehabilitation center in Chihuahua, a city in northern Mexico.
Between the 2010 Chihuahua attack and the 2020 Irapuato incident, more than a dozen assaults targeted rehabilitation centers, highlighting their ongoing vulnerability to criminal violence.
The municipal government of San Jose Iturbide stated that officials “express our solidarity with the families of those who have been killed while they tried to overcome addictions.” The government added that it would provide assistance with funeral expenses for the victims’ families.
The investigation into Sunday’s fire continues as authorities work to determine the exact cause of the blaze and the circumstances surrounding the deaths. The incident adds to the growing list of violent attacks targeting Mexico’s troubled rehabilitation center system.
