Ignacio Sánchez Cordero, a Municipal Secretary of Development and candidate for Mayor of Puerto Morelos, was assassinated on Wednesday in Quintana Roo. Sanchez Cordero was eating at a café in the Pescadores neighborhood when a gunman shot him in the head and fled. He was transferred to a private hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.

Sánchez Cordero was running on the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) ticket for mayor of Puerto Morelos.

On Thursday, the Quintana Roo Attorney General’s Office released a composite sketch of the perpetrator and requested any information leading to their capture. Quintana Roo prosecutor Óscar Montes de Oca stated that three or four people were involved in the attack, and at this moment, it is unknown if the attack is related to organized crime. Montes de Oca added that the candidate sought protective detail from the Public Ministry when he initiated his campaign, though he did not complete the application process for it.

During his morning press conference on Thursday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) stated that all candidates in the June 6 elections will receive protection and that the government will monitor if any organized crime syndicates are meddling or intervening in the elections. “When there are elections, organized crime and white-collar crime get involved, they get to finance campaigns and take sides in favor of candidates because they want to have control in the municipalities and the states,” said AMLO.

Governors will be elected in the following 15 states: Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Colima, Guerrero, Michoacán, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Sinaloa, Sonora, Campeche, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Tlaxcala and Zacatecas.

The clashes began after officers pursued and detained two vehicles with six people on board who revealed the location of a CJNG safehouse (Slide 2). In the pursuit, one GN truck collided with a taxi, injuring five officers (Slide 3).

According to the attorney general of Quintana Roo Óscar Montes de Oca Rosales, after securing the location of the safehouse, state police, GN officers, the army, and navy arrived at the location in Region 232. The firefight erupted after the officers arrived (Slide 4-7). After the raid, officers rescued one of the kidnap victims; the other victim was discovered handcuffed and lifeless. Nine more alleged CJNG members were arrested, and seven short weapons, three long weapons, four vehicles and a motorcycle were seized. An officer with the GN was injured in the firefight.

Earlier that morning, the dismembered human remains of an individual were discovered in region 260, prompting a mobilization of security forces.