Mexico City: Two main assistants of the mayor of Mexico City, Clara Brugada, were shot dead after being ambushed by armed men on a motorcycle in a daytime attack in the center of the city on Tuesday.
The victims were the mayor’s private secretary, Ximena Guzmán, and Brugada advisor, José Muñoz, according to a city statement.
The murders have sent shock waves through the capital of Mexico, widely considered as a relative security oasis in a country full of violence. Political violence has become common in many parts of Mexico, where dozens of local political candidates have been killed in murders generally linked to drug posters that seek to exert influence.
The initial reports indicated that Guzmn had been leading to work and stopped in a busy via in the center of Mexico City to pick up his colleague, said an official of the federal prosecutor’s office.
Muñoz was approached by two armed men on a motorcycle that shot him and killed him on the street. Then, the attackers fired at least four shots to Guzmán inside the vehicle, killing her.
The authorities have not yet given a reason for the attack, although security experts say it seemed to be a blow carried out by organized crime.
The Civil Security Office of Mexico City said a motorcycle had been seized not far from the attack, as well as another vehicle in the Iztacalco neighborhood, while the researchers sought ballistic evidence and fingerprints of the scene.
“I feel very sad for the loss of Ximena and Pepe (José), with whom for many years we share dreams and struggles,” said a remarkably distressed bruge from.
He thanked Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum and her cabinet for the support and cooperation they had provided from the attack. Sheinbaum is a former mayor of Mexico City.
“It is a deplorable incident and we will give all the support that the mayor may need,” said Sheinbaum.
Brugada added that there would be no impunity for those responsible for the murder. She was not in the car when the attack took place, said an official of the Government of Mexico City to Reuters.
The photos in the local media showed a black Audi with four bullet holes in the front window and a sheet that covered what appeared to be a body, while another body was covered with a white sheet on the pavement.
Police patrols recorded the area so that forensic specialists could examine the scene.
“It was a hard message sent to Clara (Brugada), undoubtedly perpetrated by drug traffickers,” said David Saucedo, a public security specialist. The groups affected by drug seizures have previously launched attacks against the authorities of the capital, he said.
In 2020, then the police chief of Mexico City, Omar García Harfuch, now the Federal Security Minister, was shot and injured in an attempt to murder that killed two of his bodyguards. That attack was blamed for him to one of the most powerful drug groups in the country, the poster of the new generation of Jalisco.
