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Aristotle Sandoval, Former governor of the Mexican state of Jalisco (west), one of the most violent in the country, was shot to death early Friday at a restaurant in the touristy Puerto Vallarta, the regional government reported.
Sandoval was “the victim of an attack in the municipality of Puerto Vallarta”, one of the most important tourist destinations in the countrysaid the government of Jalisco on Twitter.
“I am very sorry for the assassination of the former governor of Jalisco (…) It is a matter that will be investigated so that the cause and motive are known and those responsible are punished,” said the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, at the beginning of his morning lecture.
The Jalisco prosecutor, Octavio Solís, said in a conference that the former governor had recently spent a few days of vacation in Puerto Vallarta with “family and friends” and that he returned to that city about a week ago.
The former governor settled in a hotel and carried out “various recreational and business activities,” said Solís.
On Thursday night he arrived at a restaurant on the main avenue of Puerto Vallarta and around 07:40 GMT on Friday (04:40 in Chile) he got up from the table where he was together with three other men and a woman to go to the bathroom.
“In the bathroom he was attacked from behind, apparently by an individual with a firearm”, the prosecutor detailed. “The area is being swept” and interviewing “witnesses,” he continued.
According to the legislation to protect officials and former officials, the former governor had 15 bodyguards and armored vehicles, Ricardo Sánchez, coordinator of the Jalisco Security Cabinet, said at the same conference.
“They clean the crime scene”
According to the authorities, there was a shooting outside the restaurant where the attack occurred, and some of its employees altered the scene of the murder.
When the police entered the building, “restaurant staff had raised all the signs inside, They had practically cleaned up the crime scene. This is going to make the investigations a bit difficult, ”added the prosecutor.
“There was a confrontation outside, there were a series of shots outside this restaurant and different calibers of percussion helmets were found”, abounded.
Sandoval, 46, was governor of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) between 2013 and 2018 in Jalisco, a state plagued by violence derived from organized crime.
Jalisco, where a large number of clandestine graves have been found, is the bastion of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, that maintains disputes with rival organizations.
Since December 2006, when the government of that time launched a military anti-drug operation, until last August, there have been more than 296,000 murders in Mexico, according to official figures.
The authorities do not clarify how many of these deaths are linked to the fight against criminal gangs.
Between January and November, 31,871 homicides were registered in the country, up from 31,764 in the same period of 2019, according to the latest government report.
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