A federal judge who had investigated organized crime cases was shot dead on Tuesday with his wife at his home in the state of Colima, Mexico, the Supreme Court announced. Judge Uriel Villegas was at home when armed men barged in and opened fire. He and his wife were killed.
#Comunicado El PJF, @SCJN y el CJF, lamentamos profundamente el cobarde asesinato del Juez Uriel Villegas y Verónica Barajas, su señora esposa.
Condenamos y rechazamos enérgicamente los actos de violencia.
Nuestro sincero pésame a familiares, amigos y colegas; descansen en paz pic.twitter.com/SIS92XnFpd
Two minors, the magistrate's children, and a domestic worker survived the attack. "We are asking the competent authorities for their support in ensuring the safety of federal judges and their families, and that the corresponding responsibilities are investigated and determined," said Arturo Zaldivar, President of the Supreme Court.
In charge of a case on a cartel
The Security Secretariat also condemned the murder of the judge and his wife. The attorney general's office announced on its Twitter account that it "fully supports" the investigation into the attack. The judge worked since February in a federal criminal court in the city of Colima, capital of the state of the same name.
Previously, he had been a judge in the state of Jalisco and, according to the Mexican press, he had been in charge of the Ruben Oseguera case, named after the son of Nemesio Oseguera "El Mencho", head of the powerful cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion. Uriel Villegas ordered the transfer of Oseguera Jr. to an Oaxaca prison in 2018, from where he was extradited to the United States in February.
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