They pulled up to a soccer field in Salamanca like it was nothing—broad daylight, families watching, kids running around. The shooters didn’t care. They opened fire on the pitch and left 11 bodies in the grass. A dozen more hit the dirt wounded. No one shot back.
This wasn’t some petty dispute. This was a coordinated strike, a direct message from the Cártel Santa Rosa de Lima (CSRL): we’re still here, and we still run Guanajuato.
The cell behind it goes by “Los Marros.” They answer to Mario Eleazar Lara Belman, a name whispered with enough fear to matter locally. Everyone calls him El Gallo, and his orders come from prison.
Not just any prison. The real boss—José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, alias “El Marro”—has been locked up since 2020. He was hit with a 60-year sentence in 2022, but none of that has stopped him. He’s still in control, still running CSRL through family and lawyers. And judging by what just happened, his grip hasn’t loosened one bit.
This is not a dead cartel.
CSRL never needed global routes or flashy corridos. Their power has always come from Guanajuato’s industrial corridor—pipelines, refineries, local extortion, and a reputation for doing damage when crossed. They declared war on CJNG in 2017 and never backed off, despite wave after wave of bloodletting in Salamanca, Irapuato, Celaya.
The U.S. Treasury still considers El Marro an active threat. OFAC’s latest sanctions say he’s formed alliances from prison with both the Gulf Cartel and remnants of the Sinaloa Cartel. They’ve also flagged CSRL for recruiting ex-Colombian paramilitaries to bolster the fight against CJNG.
Fuel theft—huachicol—still bankrolls the violence. Pemex insiders. Illegal taps. Smuggling crude through brokers into the U.S. under false paperwork. Hundreds of millions washed back into Mexico through border towns and ghost accounts. Guanajuato bleeds because there’s cash in the pipelines and killers on the payroll.
The massacre in Salamanca didn’t just happen. It was calculated. Surgical. And it tells us what many already knew:
El Marro never left.
Santa Rosa de Lima never folded.
And Guanajuato is still on fire.
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2 Comments
This clown kept trying to be like La Tuta with his TV Tuteca-like videos. Remember this bitch crying like a baby when some of his people were arrested?
He was in Altiplano for a long time until they transferred him to CEFERESO 14 a couple of years ago. CEFERESO 14 is an American style prison with less food and medical care and worse guards. There is a lot less prisoner contact in CEFERESO 14 than in Altiplano. He’s definitely not having a good time in Durango. I don’t believe he has a case in the U.S. which would explain why he is still in Mexico.
Mexico needs to adopt SAM’s (Special Administrative Measures) like they do in the U.S. so major crime figures have limited access to family and their visits with their attorneys are monitored so they can’t continue to direct their criminal activities from inside of the prison.
Thanks for the comment!