Yet another public official in Mexico was killed in a violent attack, this time in the central state of Guanajuato.
Ignacio Alejandro Roaro Aguilar, city secretary of Apaseo el Alto, a small municipality in eastern Guanajuato, was fatally shot on Saturday while playing basketball at a local park.
Initial reports detailed a group of armed men arrived on a motorcycle and opened fire on Roaro Aguilar multiple times.
First responders and members of the Mexican National Guard who arrived at the scene found Roaro Aguilar and another individual with gunshot wounds. Roaro Aguilar was pronounced dead at the scene, while the second person, whose identity has not been disclosed, was transported to a nearby hospital and is reported to be in critical condition.
Municipal authorities in Apaseo el Alto condemned the attack, calling it "cunning, vile and cowardly." In a statement, officials said investigations were underway in coordination with the Guanajuato Secretariat of Security and Peace, the state attorney general's office, and federal agencies.
On Sunday, the Guanajuato Attorney General's Office confirmed that forensic teams had begun investigating the crime scene. The state's Secretariat of Security and Peace also announced that the killing may be linked to the recent arrest of a local criminal group leader in an operation that took place just minutes before the attack on Roaro Aguilar.
According to Zona Franca, local police arrested a man found with a high-powered firearm just hours after the attack. Identified only as Huno "N," the suspect was carrying an AK-47 rifle, a magazine, and 26 cartridges. Authorities said he was arrested following a citizen tip about an aggressive individual inside a vehicle. He was taken into custody after resisting inspection, with backup officers assisting in the operation.
Guanajuato is Mexico's deadliest state so far in 2025
Although Sinaloa remains a flashpoint for cartel violence due to ongoing turf wars between Los Chapitos and La Mayiza —two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel— Guanajuato sits as most violent state in Mexico in 2025.
According to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), a total of 1,435 intentional homicides were recorded in Guanajuato from January through May 2025. In the month of June alone, 171 more cases were reported, for an average of 5.7 per day.
Many of those killed have been public officials. In June, a local police officer was gunned down along the Querétaro-Celaya highway. And just last week, three municipal officials were murdered in the towns of Santiago Maravatío and Salamanca.
According to a report published earlier this year, Mexico ranked as the most dangerous country in the world for public officials,
The analysis published by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), an organization that tracks and analyzes incidents of political violence and protest worldwide Mexico registered 324 violent attacks against public officials in 2024 — a 29% increase over the previous year.
That spike put Mexico ahead of countries that have active internal armed conflicts, including countries such as Myanmar and Syria.
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