Thirteen arrested over murders of Mexico City officials

[Desmond Milligan 0]

Thirteen people were arrested on Wednesday for their alleged involvement in the murders of two close aides to Mexico City's mayor three months ago, Mayor Clara Brugada said.

Brugada's personal secretary Ximena Guzman and advisor Jose "Pepe" Munoz were gunned down during rush hour on a busy avenue in the Mexican capital on May 20.

Among the 13 arrested were "three people who participated directly" in the attack, as well as "others linked to the logistical preparation," Brugada told a press conference.

The arrests were made at dawn as part of a joint operation between local and federal authorities as well as the army.

Despite the apparent hallmarks of a gang hit, Brugada did not speak about a motive.

After the murders, public prosecutor Bertha Alcalde Lujan said it was "a direct attack with a significant degree of planning, and those who carried it out had prior experience."

Guzman and Munoz were both members of President Claudia Sheinbaum's Morena party, which also governs Mexico City.

Brugada is a close ally of Sheinbaum, who has condemned the attack as "deplorable."

While Mexico City has been spared the worst of the country's raging criminal violence, it is not the first high-profile attack targeting public officials in the capital.

In June 2020, the city's then security chief Omar Garcia Harfuch survived an attack by heavily armed gunmen who killed two of his bodyguards and a passerby.

Garcia Harfuch, who is now Sheinbaum's national security minister, was wounded in the shooting, which he blamed on the powerful drug trafficking group Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

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