Aunt and cousin from Mexico.

Authorities in the western Mexican state of Colima said they have killed three people suspected of fatally shooting two relatives of Mexico’s education secretary on Saturday.

Colima, located on Mexico’s Pacific coast, is one of the most violent states in the country. It recorded the highest homicide rate in Mexico in 2023 and 2024, according to the US State Department.

Local prosecutors said officers killed three suspects in the 4:30 a.m. (1030 GMT) shooting of two women, whom Mexico’s Public Education Secretary, Mario Delgado, later identified as his aunt and cousin.

They did not identify a motive for the shooting or say whether they were looking for other suspects.

“Deep shock, indignation and pain for the events that occurred this morning in Colima, where my aunt Eugenia Delgado and my cousin Sheila were brutally murdered in their home,” Delgado wrote in X on Saturday.

“Throughout my childhood, my aunt Queña – as we affectionately called her – made me a birthday cake every year. That’s how she made a living, working hard, selling delicious cakes and traditional food from Colima prepared as only she knew how. Now she is with my grandparents and my dad, her dear brother,” he wrote in X.

Authorities tracked the suspects’ vehicle to a home in Colima on Saturday afternoon and killed three people in a shootout, according to prosecutors.

Investigators found guns and clothing in the suspects’ home related to the double shooting.

Delgado was appointed Secretary of Education by President Claudia Sheinbaum in 2024 and his profile photo on X shows them both together. He previously served as national president of the ruling Morena party.

Last month, Sheinbaum said efforts to crack down on Mexican cartels and curb northward migration were working. “convincing results” in an effort to avoid talks of intervention by the Trump administration.

His comments came after President Trump last week threatened action against Mexican drug cartels by U.S. forces. Trump told News that the United States had “eliminated 97% of the drugs that came by water” and that the United States was “going to start attacking land, regarding the cartels.”