A fire at a drug rehabilitation center in San Jose Iturbide, Guanajuato, Mexico killed 12 people and injured at least three others early Sunday morning, according to authorities. Mexican media outlets reported that the victims had been locked inside the facility when the blaze erupted.
The municipal government expressed solidarity with the families affected and pledged to help cover funeral expenses for those killed. Officials indicated they are still investigating what caused the deadly fire at the privately-run rehabilitation center.
The Guanajuato state prosecutor’s office reported that experts are gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses to establish the reasons for the incident. A woman was photographed lighting candles at the rehabilitation center following the tragedy on June 1, 2025.
Mexico’s privately operated drug rehabilitation centers are frequently characterized as abusive, clandestine, unregulated and underfunded facilities. These centers have been targeted in similar attacks previously, often becoming sites of violence between competing criminal organizations.
Guanajuato has been the scene of a prolonged and bloody territorial dispute between the Jalisco New Generation cartel and a local criminal organization known as the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel. The industrial and agricultural state records the highest number of homicides of any state in Mexico.
Just last month, investigators discovered 17 bodies during a search for missing persons in an abandoned house in Guanajuato. Days before that discovery, seven people, including children, were gunned down in the same region.
Drug gangs have previously killed suspected street-level dealers from rival organizations who were sheltering at rehabilitation facilities. Officials believe cartels sometimes execute patients who refuse to join their criminal enterprises.
In April 2025, gunmen attacked a drug rehabilitation clinic in Sinaloa state, killing at least nine people. In July 2022, six individuals were fatally shot at a drug rehabilitation facility near Guadalajara in western Mexico.
Two years before the Guadalajara incident, heavily armed men stormed a drug rehabilitation center in the central city of Irapuato and killed 27 people.
Nineteen people lost their lives in 2010 during an attack on a rehabilitation center located in Chihuahua, a city in northern Mexico.
In the ten years between the 2010 Chihuahua massacre and the 2020 Irapuato attack, over a dozen other assaults targeted rehabilitation centers, underscoring their continued exposure 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 circumstances surrounding the deaths. The incident adds to the growing list of violent attacks targeting Mexico’s troubled rehabilitation center system.
