Violence in the Mexico City metropolitan area reared its head at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Tuesday mañanera.
The president spoke about two separate murder cases, one in which two Colombian nationals were killed and another in which a young student was stabbed to death.
Sheinbaum: Murder of Colombians ‘an unfortunate episode,’ but it won’t affect Mexico-Colombia relationship
Sheinbaum noted that the bodies of two Colombian artists — a singer known as B King and a DJ who performed under the name Regio Clown — were found “some time after” the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office began a search for the two men and issued “all the alerts” to assist in their location.
The bodies of Bayron Sánchez (B King) and Jorge Luis Herrera (Regio Clown) were found in a México state municipality southeast of central Mexico City last Wednesday, a day after they went missing in Mexico City, but they weren’t officially identified until Monday.
Reports from Mexican news outlets have linked the performers’ deaths with La Familia Michoacana, one of six Mexican cartels that are designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the United States government.
Sánchez is the nephew of the Colombian cartel leader Camilo Torres, alias “Fritanga,” according to media reports cited by the Reuters news agency.
Sheinbaum said that she would leave it to the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office and her security cabinet to provide more information about the case, but she noted that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in contact with the government of Colombia.
She described the murder of the two Colombians as “an unfortunate episode,” but said there was no reason it would affect the relationship between Mexico and Colombia.
Before the discovery of the bodies was made public on Monday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro requested assistance from Sheinbaum in the search for the two men.
“I ask the President of the United Mexican States, Claudia Sheinbaum, my friend and comrade in struggle since M19 [sic], and the entire diplomatic corps of Colombia in Mexico, to ensure that the singer Bayron Sánchez and his fellow band member Jorge Herrera appear alive,” Petro posted on X on Sunday, four days after the bodies of the men were found.
M-19 was an urban guerrilla group active in Colombia in the 1970s and 1980s, before it transitioned into a political party. Petro has asserted that Sheinbaum was a member of M-19, a claim she rejected — including with a hearty laugh — on Tuesday.
“I’m not going to get into a debate with President Petro,” she added.
Sheinbaum laments murder at her alma mater
Sheinbaum also commented on an attack on Monday at the southern campus of the College of Science and Humanities (CCH Sur), a high school-level educational institute run by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City.
A 19-year-old student killed a 16-year-old student and injured a 65-year-old college worker in the stabbing attack. The attacker, while attempting to escape, jumped off a building at the school, fracturing both his legs. He was taken to hospital, where he was placed in the custody of police.
Sheinbaum described the attack as a “very painful” incident, before noting that she is a graduate of CCH Sur, a school she entered as a 15-year-old in 1977.
She said that her government was waiting for the investigation into the deadly attack to conclude.
“I asked the interior minister to approach the family [of the student who was killed],” Sheinbaum said.
A reporter told the president that CCH Sur students had previously reported other students taking bladed weapons into the school, but the director of the educational institute allegedly didn’t take any action in response.
Sheinbaum said that her government is willing to assist the CCH Sur students and the school itself in any way it can.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
