This morning Mexico woke up to the news of a direct attack against a Mexican politician, again.
During the early morning, former Governor Aristóteles Sandoval was shot in the bathroom of a restaurant in the tourist area of Puerto Vallarta, in the southwestern state of Jalisco.
When his bodyguards tried to get Sandoval out to take him to the hospital there was another shooting, outside the restaurant, according to authorities.
Sandoval was 46 years old and, according to authorities, he was in Puerto Vallarta on vacation with his family.
No group or person has claimed responsibility for the attack so far, and a motive has not been established, according to Gerardo Octavio Solís, a Jalisco prosecutor.
[113 bodies found in the largest clandestine grave discovered this year in Jalisco]
In addition to being a former governor, Sandoval had been a local deputy, alderman of the capital city (Guadalajara) and, until the end of October, a member of the executive committee of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), currently in the opposition.
The current Jalisco authorities indicated that not all the members of the team of 15 bodyguards that usually accompanied Sandoval were present;
there were only two of them, one of whom was injured.
According to prosecutor Solís,
restaurant workers cleaned up the crime scene and even took camera footage for some reason.
[AMLO proposes to withdraw the diplomatic immunity of DEA agents and restrict their activity in Mexico]
The president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (nicknamed AMLO), declared at a press conference on Friday that "it is a matter that will be investigated so that the motive is known and those responsible are punished. It is the responsibility of the state of Jalisco to carry out the investigations. ".
Sandoval was governor of Jalisco between 2013 and 2018, years in which the
Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG)
expanded its operations both in that state and in the southwest region and the so-called Tierra Caliente on the Guadalajara border with Michoacán.
Currently, the CJNG is considered by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) the most bloodthirsty organized crime operation and the growth of which is the most worrying in the United States.
The CJNG leader, Nemesio
El Mencho
Oseguera, is one of the most sought-after figures by authorities on both sides of the border;
there are rewards for information about his whereabouts in both Mexico and the United States.
[Do not kill without the order of the boss: the rules of 'El Mencho' in the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel]
Jalisco has become one of the worst hot spots of violence in Mexico
, a country that is about to break another annual record of homicides committed with intent.
Until October, Mexico accumulated more than 35,990 murders of this type;
a contrast to the figure for all of 2019, which in itself had set a painful record of 34,582 people murdered maliciously.
The current government has maintained a policy of militarizing public security, as López Obrador has given the armed forces more and more responsibilities, but the strategy has failed to reduce the growing rates of violence.
In recent years, Jalisco is one of the places where
missing persons have been most reported.
In addition, Jalisco is among the states that will hold elections in 2021.
[The horror of disappearances in Mexico: the country has more than 73,000 people not located]
During an electoral period in Mexico, it has become unfortunately common that
there are various attacks and assassinations of local politicians
, attributed to cartels and organized crime groups that want to send the message that they can get rid of those who get in the way.
In the last elections, in 2018, around 100 candidates were assassinated.