Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador talks to the media at the National Palace on August 16, 2022 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo: Luis Barron / Eyepix Group/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
The son of Celaya’s city mayor in the Mexican central state of Guanajuato was murdered by sicarios on Wednesday and Mexico’s president responded with “big hugs.” Guillermo Mendoza, the son of Celaya Mayor Javier Mendoza, was ambushed by a group of armed men while driving an SUV, according to local authorities. Photos shared by news outlets on social media showed a dark gray SUV with a dozen gunshots on the passenger’s window. Media reported that Mendoza was traveling alone at the moment of the attack and died almost immediately inside the vehicle. A few hours after the attack, alleged members of a drug cartel circulated a message on social media claiming the assassination was due to the mayor breaking supposed promises and threatened to kill more family members. “We have you on sight, we are even killing your dog,” the message’s last line said. “This was a cowardly aggression against this administration and all of its public servants,” Rodríguez said.
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The message was posted anonymously without any specific criminal organization attributing the attack and VICE World News could not immediately verify its authenticity. Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador shared his condolences to Mendoza’s family on Thursday morning during his daily press conference.“I want to send my condolences to Celaya’s municipal president for the killing of his son in a very unfortunate event,” López Obrador said. “I send big hugs to him.” López Obrador security strategy of “Abrazos, no Balazos”—Hugs, not Bullets — has been widely criticized as general violence keeps hitting the country. Guanajuato Governor Diego Sinhue Rodriguez also condemned the attack in a recent post on his official Twitter account.
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The state of Guanajuato is currently one of the most violent states in Mexico with over 1,500 murders registered by officials up to August, adding for over 10 percent of Mexico’s total. Guanajuato was recently under siege for several hours after Mexico’s military attempted to arrest prominent Jalisco New Generation Cartel commander Ricardo Ruiz aka "Doble R”. Images shared on Twitter showed at least one bus burning and several armed men carjacking people at stop lights. In another clip, alleged narcos yelled “we are people of El Mencho”—leader of the CJNG—and set a convenience store on fire with several civilians inside. The video appears to have been filmed by the perpetrators. The attacks happened simultaneously in the two states of Jalisco and Guanajuato, according to news reports.