Top aides to Mexico City’s mayor are gunned down in attack

MEXICO CITY — Two top officials of the Mexico City government were shot dead early Tuesday in the kind of attack on political figures that has become relatively common in much of Mexico—but has remained rare in the capital.

The two victims were both aides to Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada, a key member of the Morena ruling bloc and a close ally of President Claudia Sheinbaum, herself a former mayor of the capital.

The president was informed of the slaying during her regular morning news conference. The killings sparked immediate media speculation—but no confirmation—that the attack was timed as a warning to coincide with the president’s widely followed mañanera, or morning media briefing.

Sheinbaum condemned the slayings as “lamentable,” but cautioned against speculation as to what was behind the attack. “We have to [wait for] the investigation to be able to know the cause and help as much as we can,” Sheinbaum told reporters.

Since taking office last Oct. 1, Sheinbaum has been engaged in a wide-ranging crackdown on organized crime that has included hundreds of arrests nationwide, take-downs of scores of suspected drug laboratories and the transfer of 29 alleged gang capos to the United States. She has also dispatched thousands of troops to the country’s border with the United States in a bid to help deter drug-trafficking and illegal immigration.

Tuesday’s dual assassination took place shortly after 7 a.m. near a major intersection in the neighborhood known as Colonia Moderna.

Shot dead were Ximena Guzmán, first secretary to the mayor, and José Muñoz, a mayoral advisor. The two were traveling together in a car and did not have bodyguards, according to media reports here.

Authorities did not comment on a potential motive. No arrest have been made. In an initial statement, Brugada said the “probable” assailants were traveling on a motorcycle.

“There will be no impunity,” the mayor vowed in a statement. “Those responsible will be arrested and will face justice.”

Dramatic video images widely circulating in the news media here—though not officially confirmed as authentic— show a single attacker in a white jacket and motorcycle helmet firing numerous times through the windshield of an idling car said to be carrying the two aides. The gunman appeared to have been waiting for some minutes by the car until a male figure entered the vehicle.

After opening fire, the presumed killer runs off on foot against traffic down the street as the targeted car lurches forward, according to the grainy video.

It was the most high-profile assassination attempt in the capital since a sensational assault in 2020 targeting a vehicle transporting then-Mexico City police chief, Omar García Harfuch, who was shot but survived—though two bodyguards were killed in the attack. García Harfuch, who now serves as national security chief under Sheinbaum, publicly pinned the blame for that attack on the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Mexico City has generally been spared the kinds of political slayings that frequently occur throughout much of the country, especially during election seasons. Dozens of candidates—mostly for mayoral and other municipal positions—were slain during last year’s national elections.

Tuesday’s slayings spurred a rash of theories about what was behind the attack. David Saucedo, a Mexican security analyst, noted that some gangs operating in Mexico City view themselves as unfairly targeted by official crackdowns, including arrests and seizures of illicit drugs. They perceive that rival criminal groups do not face the same pressure, Saucedo said.

“For a long time there is a sense that the government of Mexico City fights against certain groups of narcotics traffickers and allows others to act freely,” Saucedo said.

Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed.