Amid international fallout, a local tragedy
by Madeleine Wattenbarger.
Until last week, Ximena Guzmán Cuevas and José Muñoz were not public figures. Longstanding members of the ruling Morena Party, they both held senior positions in Mexico City’s government. Guzmán worked as Mayor Clara Brugada’s personal secretary; Muñoz as an adviser, coordinating closely with the national government, including on security issues. On Tuesday, May 20, a little after 7 a.m., Guzmán pulled over on a busy stretch of Tlalpan Avenue to pick up her coworker. A gunman fired twelve shots into the car, killing both Ximena and Pepe.
The assassination was timed for maximum visibility: up the road, in the National Palace and in view of the press, Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch informed President Sheinbaum of the events. She announced the news live to the nation.
A week later, information is scarce and the suspects remain at large. At a press conference the day after the murders, Mexico City’s top prosecutor, Bertha Alcalde Luján, and Public Security Secretary Pablo Vázquez Camacho refrained from answering questions about possible motives. The location, timing, and calculated execution suggest a professional hit: the assassins worked in a trio, used gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints, and escaped in a stolen car into the eastern fringes of Mexico State.
Claudia Sheinbaum’s terrible, no good, very bad week
by David Agren.
Claudia Sheinbaum has suffered perhaps the worst week of her administration – marked by the murders of two senior functionaries in the Mexico City government.
How bad was her week?
Over the weekend, the Cuauhtemoc, a Mexican Navy ship, crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge while on a global goodwill tour. The crash, which New York City officials say was caused by a mechanical failure, resulted in the deaths of Naval cadets, América Yamilet Sánchez, 20, and Adal Jair Maldonado, 23.
On Tuesday, Ximena Guzmán, personal secretary to mayor Clara Brugada, and José Muñoz, a government advisor, were killed in cold blood as they commuted on a busy thoroughfare. The suspect remains at large and no motive has been offered for the assassinations.
The day before in Guanajuato state, seven young people were killed when gunmen arriving in SUVs shot up a parish festival in the town of San Bartolo de los Berrios.
Development plans for Estadio Azteca bypass Indigenous consultation
by Madeleine Wattenbarger.
Next year’s World Cup will be the third to take place at the Estadio Azteca, which is located in the southern Mexico City neighborhood of Santa Úrsula Coapa. In preparation for the 2026 sporting event, Mexico City mayor Clara Brugada has announced a series of public works around Santa Úrsula, a historic indigenous town, one of dozens now absorbed by the metropolis. But the authorities have yet to carry out the indigenous consultation process required by the Mexican constitution and international law, and neighbors are concerned about the event’s toll on the area’s natural resources.
“In ‘70 and ‘86, there were a lot of people and a lot of money spent, but who took that money home? Here, they didn’t so much as paint a fence,” says Rubén Ramirez Almazan, the traditional authority figure of Santa Ursula’s indigenous governance structure. ”We aren’t against the project, but they have to do feasibility studies, and the people have to decide whether they do the projects or not.”
The plan includes an elevated bike lane from the Zocalo to the Estadio Azteca, a nine-mile stretch planned above the existing metro line, and a remodeling of the existing lightrail train.
“It’s concerning because we don’t have any information about the impact, if there’s any kind of program for security, waste management or the water supply,” adds Natalia Lara Trejo, a resident of Santa Úrsula. She’s one of a group of neighbors demanding more transparency around the World Cup preparations.
