MEXICO CITY, Might 20 (Reuters) – Two prime aides of Mexico Metropolis Mayor Clara Brugada have been shot useless after being ambushed by gunmen on a motorcycle in a daytime assault within the metropolis middle on Tuesday.
The victims have been the mayor’s personal secretary, Ximena Guzman, and an adviser to Brugada, Jose Munoz, based on a press release from the metropolis.
The assassinations have despatched shockwaves via Mexico’s capital, extensively considered an oasis of relative safety in a rustic affected by violence. Political violence has turn into widespread in lots of components of Mexico, the place scores of native political candidates have been assassinated in killings normally linked to drug cartels searching for to exert affect.
Preliminary stories indicated Guzman had been driving to work and stopped on a busy avenue in downtown Mexico Metropolis to select up her colleague, an official on the federal prosecutor’s workplace mentioned.
Munoz was approached by two gunmen on a motorcycle who shot and killed him on the street. The attackers then fired no less than 4 photographs at Guzman contained in the car, killing her.
Authorities haven’t but given a motive for the assault though safety consultants say it seemed to be a success carried out by organized crime.
Mexico Metropolis’s civil safety workplace mentioned {that a} motorcycle had been seized not removed from assault, in addition to one other car within the Iztacalco neighborhood, whereas investigators have been wanting into ballistic and fingerprint proof from the scene.
“I really feel very unhappy for the lack of Ximena and Pepe (Jose), with whom for a few years we shared desires and struggles,” a noticeably distressed Brugada mentioned.
She thanked Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and her cupboard for the assist and cooperation they’d offered because the assault. Sheinbaum is a former mayor of Mexico Metropolis.
“It’s a deplorable incident and we’re going to give all of the assist that the mayor might have,” Sheinbaum mentioned.
Brugada added that there could be no impunity for these answerable for the killing. She was not within the automotive when the assault came about, a Mexico Metropolis authorities official instructed Reuters.
Photographs in native media confirmed a black Audi with 4 bullet holes within the entrance window and a sheet masking what seemed to be one physique, whereas one other physique was coated with a white sheet on the pavement.
Police patrols taped off the world so forensic specialists may study the scene.
“It was a harsh message despatched to Clara (Brugada), undoubtedly perpetrated by drug traffickers,” mentioned David Saucedo, a public safety specialist. Teams affected by drug seizures have beforehand launched assaults in opposition to the capital’s authorities, he mentioned.
In 2020 then Mexico Metropolis police chief Omar Garcia Harfuch, now the federal safety minister, was shot and injured in an assassination try that killed two of his bodyguards. That assault was blamed by him on one of many nation’s strongest drug teams, the Jalisco New Technology Cartel.
