Violence in Mexico has surged to record levels in recent years, with the country on track to register more than 35,000 homicides in 2019. In a shocking escalation of cartel violence, a booby trap or car bomb exploded on Wednesday in the Mexican city of Celaya, in the north-central state of Guanajuato.

The blast injured several officers of the National Guard who had responded to a report about a car parked with what appeared to be bodies inside. The National Guard stated that the explosion occurred late Wednesday and that the Jalisco and Santa Rosa de Lima drug cartels have been fighting a bloody turf war for years.

This use of a car bomb to intentionally cause law enforcement casualties marks an escalation of the infighting between rival cartels. The officers were reportedly sent to investigate the suspicious car and as they approached, the vehicle exploded, sending guard officers flying.

At least three of them suffered considerable injuries and required hospitalisation. Guanajuato security analyst David Saucedo said the blast may also illustrate vulnerabilities in Mexico’s quasi-military National Guard, which was created by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to act as the country’s main law enforcement agency. Saucedo said police in Celaya tend to approach abandoned cars with much more caution, making Wednesday’s incident all the more alarming.

Mexican drug cartels have used improvised explosive devices sporadically over the last two decades, but Saucedo said the incident appears to be a progression into terrorist-style acts, intended to create terror in the population and garner attention through the media and social media.

The incident in Guanajuato came on the same day that authorities in the border state of Chihuahua reported that eight people had been killed and two burned-out vehicles were found following an apparent drug cartel clash in the town of Guachochi, in a mountainous region near the border with the neighbouring states of Sinaloa and Durango.

The apparent increase in violence comes as a massive search continues for 16 state employees kidnapped at gunpoint by suspected drug gang members on Tuesday in the southern state of Chiapas. Relatives of the abducted officers blocked traffic on highways and streets in Chiapas on Thursday, demanding they be found and freed.

President Lopez Obrador has said he is willing to investigate the state police officials whose resignation the gang had demanded, but only after the hostages are released. The president has steadily maintained that Mexico’s drug cartel violence problem is under control and declining.

He has taken a non-confrontational attitude towards the cartels, warning the gang to release the kidnapped officers or “I’m going to tell on them to their fathers and grandfathers”. Violence in Mexico has surged to record levels in recent years, with the country on track to register more than 35,000 homicides in 2019.

The events of this week suggest that the infighting between rival cartels is continuing to escalate, and that the Mexican government is faced with a serious challenge in containing the crisis.