An aunt and cousin of federal Education Minister Mario Delgado were murdered on Saturday morning in the city of Colima, capital of the small Pacific coast state of Colima.
Later on Saturday, three people who allegedly participated in the double homicide were shot dead by police, state authorities said.
The victims of the double homicide were identified as María Eugenia Delgado Guizar, 72, and her daughter, Sheila María Eugenia Amezcua Delgado, 49.
The former was Mario Delgado’s aunt, the sister of his father, while the latter was the education minister’s cousin.
The Colima Attorney General’s Office (FGE) and the Colima government issued a statement that said the murder of the two women occurred at around 4:30 a.m. Saturday in Placetas Estadio, a neighborhood in Colima city.
Armed men reportedly broke into the women’s home and killed the mother and daughter.
The statement said that state police attended the crime scene and subsequently began an investigation into the double homicide. It said the investigation was being carried out under “the femicide protocol and the principles of gender perspective.”
No possible motive for the crime was mentioned in the statement issued by the FGE and other state authorities.
The statement said that with the support of Colima authorities and federal agencies “with a presence in the state,” and thanks to “tracking” carried out by the Colima C5 command center, the “vehicle used in the crime” and “some of the people who participated” in the murder were identified.
Authorities subsequently located the vehicle, a light blue Chevrolet Groove, outside an address in the municipality of Villa de Álvarez, which adjoins the municipality of Colima.
Police were met with gunfire when they approached the address, according to the official statement. They returned fire and “three aggressors” were killed, the statement said.
One police officer was shot, but was described as being “out of danger.”
Those killed by police were described in the statement as “alleged criminals who are presumed to have participated” in the double homicide in the Placetas Estadio neighborhood of Colima city.
The statement said that police found weapons inside the home in Villa de Álvarez as well as various pieces of evidence that matched information obtained from the “analysis of videos of those [allegedly] responsible” for the murder of the two women. Among those pieces of evidence, the statement said, were clothes worn by the alleged perpetrators and a sledgehammer, which the aggressors presumably used to break into the Colima city home.
Colima, which has a population of around 730,000, had the highest per capita homicide rate among Mexico’s 32 federal entities in 2025. According to official data compiled by the crime statistics website elcri.men, Colima recorded 625 homicides last year, which equated to 81.5 murders per 100,000 people.
The municipality of Colima had the 14th highest per capita homicide rate in the country last year, according to elcri.men. Mexico has more than 2,400 municipalities.
Education minister expresses ‘deep dismay’ over the murder of his aunt and cousin
Mario Delgado, a former president of the Morena party and an ex-federal deputy, acknowledged the murder of his aunt and cousin in a social media post on Saturday night.
Profunda consternación, indignación y tristeza por los hechos ocurridos esta madrugada en Colima donde mi tía Eugenia Delgado y mi prima Sheila fueron brutalmente asesinadas en su domicilio. Durante toda mi infancia mi tía Queña, como le decíamos de cariño, me preparó mi pastel…
— Mario Delgado (@mario_delgado) February 1, 2026
In the post, the education minister expressed “deep dismay, indignation and sadness” over the deaths of his aunt and cousin, who he wrote were “brutally murdered at their home.”
“Throughout my entire childhood, my aunt Queña, as we affectionately called her, made my birthday cake. That’s how she made a living, working hard, selling delicious cakes and food from Colima as only she knew how to prepare. She is now with my grandparents and my father, her beloved brother,” wrote Delgado, a native of Colima city.
“[I send a] hug with a lot of affection and solidarity to my uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews and nieces, and especially to my cousin Alex. We’re certain that the case will be solved and justice will be served. RIP,” he wrote.
With reports from El Financiero, AFP and López-Dóriga Digital
