Ex-governor of cartel-ravaged Mexican state gunned down in beach resort

[Judi Lynn]

2. Mexico: assassin shoots former state governor in restaurant bathroom

Aristóteles Sandoval was shot in the back in bathroom in Puerto Vallarta, and died soon afterwards at local hospital

Analy Nuño in Guadalajara
Fri 18 Dec 2020 11.22 EST

The former governor of Mexico’s violence-wracked western state of Jalisco has been shot dead in a restaurant bathroom in the popular beach resort of Puerto Vallarta.

Aristóteles Sandoval was dining with four others when at around 1.40 on Friday he got up from the table and went to the toilet, where the killer shot him in the back, said the state attorney general, Gerardo Octavio Solís.

Sandoval did not die immediately, but when his bodyguards tried to evacuate him from the restaurant, their escape was blocked by more gunmen in the street outside, who opened fire, seriously injuring one of the bodyguards. The former governor died soon afterwards at a local hospital.

Sandoval had been assigned 15 police bodyguards, but only two were with him during the attack.

“A lot of planning went into this murder – which means that someone had been hunting him for weeks, if not months. Someone who knew his movements, who knew more or less when he would not have all his bodyguards,” said security analyst Alejandro Hope.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/18/aristoteles-sandoval-mexico-jalisco-shot-dead-puerto-vallartat