Spanish
Two high-ranking officials from the team of Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada died in a shooting that occurred on the morning of this Tuesday on a central avenue of the Mexican capital.
Brugada reported that it was a "direct attack" against her personal secretary, Ximena Guzmán Cuevas, and government advisor José Muñoz Vega.
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According to initial reports, a man approached the vehicle driven by Guzmán and fired a weapon multiple times.
"Personnel from the Secretariat of Citizen Security and the Attorney General's Office, both of Mexico City, with the support of the Mexican government, are already conducting the corresponding investigations to determine the motive for the attack," reported the mayor.
He added that the authorities were trying to identify the suspects through the city's surveillance camera system.
"There will be no impunity, those responsible will be arrested and will have to face justice," Brugada added.
In her morning press conference, the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, expressed her condolences and said that federal authorities will give "all the support required by the Head of Government for the investigation and to get to the bottom of this situation. May there be no impunity."
What is known about the attack?
The attack occurred shortly after 07:00 (14:00 GMT) on Calzada de Tlalpan, which connects the center of Mexico City with the south, one of the main thoroughfares of the capital and one of the busiest in the morning.
According to a video released by Mexican media, Guzmán momentarily parked to wait for Muñoz to get into his vehicle. Meanwhile, a man in a white jacket and motorcycle helmet waited to the side.
When Muñoz was getting into the car, a black Audi, the man pulled out a gun and shot at Guzmán. Then he did it against Muñoz, who was lying on the pavement.
The police and emergency services arrived at the scene shortly after.
The Mexico City Attorney General's Office reported that "ministerial and expert investigations are underway" and expressed its condolences for the victims.
"There will be no impunity," he added in a post on X.
Guzmán and Muñoz had held their positions since October of last year, when Brugada assumed the head of the Government of Mexico City.
The personal secretary was a close collaborator of Brugada since she governed Iztapalapa, the most populous borough of Mexico City. Before that, she held other positions in education and sports in the Mexican capital.
Muñoz had a career related to public policy legislation. He was a technical secretary in the Federal Chamber of Deputies and worked with Brugada during her first government in Iztapalapa (2009-2012).
"I am very sad about the loss of Ximena and Pepe, with whom, for many, we shared hopes and struggles to transform first Iztapalapa and now Mexico City," expressed Brugada in a press conference hours after the assassinations.
A case of enormous impact
Without knowing the details of the reason and the circumstances of the murders, the political impact of the case is enormous.
As they are high-ranking officials of the capital government, it is proven once again that the emergency in the security issue affects all Mexicans.
But also, precisely because they are prominent figures, the scope of the case is not only national, but international. The violence that daily affects politicians and leaders in remote areas of the country now shows its worst version in the heart of a city that usually boasts of being an exception to the wave of violence and territorial disputes of armed groups.
On the other side of the border, Donald Trump's government will take note of the case to continue fueling its theory that Mexico needs military assistance in containing the violence, a proposal that Sheinbaum, who has been critical of previous Mexican governments that collaborated on security matters with Washington, rejects.
The attack can also be interpreted as a response to the increase in arrests of members of criminal groups and drug seizures. It is a hard blow to Sheinbaum's Security policy and her secretary, Omar García Harfuch, which had been yielding results, with a reduction in homicides, but which has not managed to improve the perception of insecurity among citizens and for many is a fragile strategy in a framework of deep corruption and criminal influence.
Morena, the ruling party, institutionally now seems to control everything, but on the ground, it fails to safeguard the physical integrity of its own officials.
