Violent disputes between street performers in Mexico has reached a new level this week when a group of guitar-toting mariachis were filmed being attacked by a flame-swallower.
In, perhaps, predictable scenes, the street artist is seen blowing fire on member of the band before they flee.
Security camera footage obtained by AP shows the mariachis in their white jackets at first seemed to be winning the fight, punching the flame-swallower to the ground and kicking him on the sidewalk in front of a taco restaurant named Hell.
The video, seen above, then shows the mariachis — some with clothing in flames — running away.
The flame-swallower had doused them with flammable liquid from a small can and then set them alight. The mariachis quickly removed their clothes or extinguished the flames.
None of the band members returned to the fight.
Because competition for tips in Mexico is so fierce, performers and windshield washers often stake out and defend lucrative street corners. Street vendor groups in Mexico City often square off with cudgels and sometimes guns over territory.
It is not clear how Sunday's dispute began in the city of Morelia, in the state of Michoacan west of the capital. Police said in a statement that nobody was arrested and only the flame-swallower had to be taken and treated at a nearby hospital.
Police said he told officers that he had argued with the mariachis, who then attacked him.
Elsewhere in Mexico criminal groups are seeing the upcoming elections on June 2 as an opportunity to seize power, having picked off more than a hundred hopefuls for local office and warred for turf, terrorizing local communities like Huitzilac.
Cartel violence is nothing new to Mexico, but bloodshed in the Latin American nation has spiked in the run-up to the elections, with April marking the most lethal month this year, government data shows.
Cartels have expanded control in much of the country and raked in money — not just from drugs but from legal industries and migrant smuggling. They’ve also fought with more sophisticated tools like bomb-dropping drones and improvised explosive devices.
