A Cuban man preliminarily identified as Juan "N", aged between 30 and 35, lost his life on Saturday night after being shot multiple times on Talleres Avenue in Cancún, when two individuals following him on a motorcycle opened fire and fled, according to local media reports.
After the attack, no suspects have been arrested, authorities in Quintana Roo confirmed to 14ymedio.
The attack occurred around 7:30 PM between 131st and 133rd Streets, at the height of block 79 in Region 101, in the municipality of Benito Juárez. Neighbors who heard the gunfire called emergency number 911, and paramedics from the Medical Emergency Response Team (ERUM) confirmed that the victim showed no vital signs upon arriving at the scene.
The victim was wearing a black t-shirt and blue jeans, and had various tattoos. Seven shell casings were found at the scene. The body was taken to the Forensic Medical Service for an autopsy and identification.
An official who requested anonymity described the incident as "a direct attack" and pointed out that the assailants "apparently had been following him on a motorcycle, and when they saw the opportunity, they shot at him." One of the lines of investigation points to a settling of scores.
Authorities are reviewing the cameras from the Command, Control, Computing, Communications, and Citizen Contact Center (C5) in the area to try to identify those responsible. So far, there are no arrests. The same official stated that "no one has come forward to claim the body" and that it was being verified whether the victim was legally in the country.
Authorities rejected any connection between the crime and a xenophobic campaign against the Cuban community, although the site of the attack is located just eight kilometers from Las Palapas Park, where at the beginning of October, the message "Cubans out who do not respect Mexico" appeared painted.
The homicide occurs in a context of increasing tension in Cancun regarding the Cuban migrant community. At the end of September, the Cuban Jordán was arrested as an accomplice in the murder of a dentist in that same city; the Prosecutor's Office accuses him of having monitored the victim's movements to facilitate the crime and he faces up to 25 years in prison.
The state attorney Raciel López Salazar detailed that Jordán reported the time the dentist arrived at his office and the moment he left, which allowed the perpetrator to even attend the consultation posing as a patient "with the purpose of identifying his target."
In May, a neighborhood dispute in Supermanzana 23 triggered disturbances in which about 200 people attacked the home of a Cuban couple in Cancun, with intervention from police, the National Guard, and the Army. In June, four Cubans were prosecuted for drug dealing in the Hotel Zone.
Officer Enrique García acknowledged to 14ymedio that there are cases of extortion, drug trafficking, prostitution, and some attempts at home dispossession among Cubans in the city, although he clarified that "they are from a small, focused group in the Little Havana area."
Investigations into the crime that occurred this Saturday are still ongoing, and as of the closing of this report, the two attackers remain at large.
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