The personal secretary and an adviser to Mexico City’s mayor have been shot dead by gunmen in a brazen daylight attack in a central part of the city.
Mayor Clara Brugada called the murder of her personal secretary Ximena Guzmán and adviser José Muñoz a “direct attack”. The motive is under investigation, but Brugada promised that her government would “continue its relentless fight against insecurity”.
The attack took place at about 7am on a busy road in the Moderna neighbourhood, near an entrance to the Xola metro station.
Initial reports indicate that Muñoz was waiting in the street for Guzmán, who came to pick him up.
Video from a security camera show a man in a white top and a motorbike helmet waiting by Guzmán’s car before he suddenly pulls out a pistol and starts firing – first at Muñoz, then Guzmán – before running off screen. He reportedly fled with a partner on a nearby motorbike.
It had the hallmarks of an organised crime hit – incidents that are relatively rare in the capital.
As mayor of Mexico City, Brugada holds one of the most powerful political posts in the country after President Claudia Sheinbaum, and they are allies in the Morena party.
Sheinbaum condemned the killings and said during her morning press conference that there would not be impunity. Neither Guzmán nor Muñoz had a security detail, but Sheinbaum said she was not aware of any threats against them.
Guzmán had worked with Brugada for years and was reportedly one of the people closest to her in government.
At a press conference shortly after the attack, Brugada, dressed in black, paid tribute to the two victims in a strained voice.
“[Guzmán] was a wonderful, tireless, good woman. I’ve known [Muñoz] almost since … He’s one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met, and extremely responsible,” she said. “I want to embrace their families, friends, loved ones and comrades in struggle. We in the city’s cabinet are shocked and mourn the loss of two dear comrades.”
Authorities were investigating the motive and checking surveillance camera footage to identify the attackers, said Brugada in a statement.
Two hours after the attack, the bodies had been removed by the police and all that was left was broken glass and a pool of blood drying in the morning sun.
Just down the road, a shoeshiner said he was there when it happened.
“I was right here working when they shot them and I didn’t even realise,” he said, before explaining: “I’m a little deaf.”
“But there was no panic,” he added. “Everyone just started looking that way and then my friend here told me there were two dead people by a car.”
“I actually didn’t hear the shots either,” said the friend, a stall owner called José Antonio. “I think it must have been with a silencer.”
He added: “The killers didn’t try to hide it – they did it at rush hour.”
The murders are the highest-profile attacks on government officials in Mexico City since the assassination attempt on the city’s then police chief Omar García Harfuch five years ago.
In that attack, gunmen linked to the Jalisco New Generation cartel ambushed García Harfuch as he left his home, riddling his car with hundreds of bullets and killing three people, but not García Harfuch himself, who survived to become security minister of today’s federal government.
“We won’t let this cowardly act go unpunished,” wrote García Harfuch on X, as he promised the federal government’s assistance in the investigation.
At the scene of the crime, José Antonio, the stall owner, said he had never seen anything like it in more than half a century living in La Moderna.
“It’s a calm neighbourhood,” he said. “They were targeted. I guess for professional killers it doesn’t matter whether there are people around or not. They do it and they get out of there.”
