By Ricardo Lezama 
On Monday, May 19, 2025, two mayoral aides working under Mexico City mayor Clara Brugada were slain as they made their way to work. During their morning routine, a trained assassin grouped shots into Ximena and then turned towards Jose to finish what looks like a clear murder for hire scene.
The Crime Scene
Security footage confirms what journalist Oscar Balderas had reported about the attack on Ximena Guzmán and José Muñoz, collaborators of Clara Brugada. The video material demonstrates the assailants’ prior knowledge of the victims’ routines and underscores how expertly they carried out the operation.
In the footage, one can see the perpetrators waiting at a predetermined strategic point, underscoring the premeditated nature of the attack. The escape video shows a clearly planned getaway route, definitively ruling out the possibility that the incident was improvised.
These visual evidences support the hypothesis that the attack was a direct retaliation for the security strategies implemented against organized crime in the capital.
The audiovisual material becomes a key piece for analyzing the motives behind the assault, even as the debate continues over the implicit messages in this aggression against officials close to the Head of Government of Mexico City—against a backdrop of ongoing speculation about the case. Curiously, the footage does not come from the C5 monitoring system but from a private source.
New War & Co
There’s a not unreasonable assumption throughout Mexico that the crime was a message, but the question is to whom. While the most obvious recipient is the Mexico City mayor, the next best recipient is the civilian, Omar Garcia Harfuch, led security forces. As they received news of the assassinations, their reaction was visible as other leadership, like the head of the SEDENA, in the morning presser appeared to neither know or care about the crime in Mexico City.
One reasonable hypothesis held by yours truly is that a large cohort of criminal organizations financed the well planned attack on a series of soft targets. The abuse of the C5 video surveillance system seems clear, as criminal operators knew the blind spot from which to stalk the unaware victims. This, collusion from both within the government’s surveillance apparatus and the folks who handle the itinerary of the staff seems clear, unfortunately.