Authorities in Mexico announced the arrest of a man allegedly involved in the murder of former Jalisco governor Aristoteles Sandoval.

The Jalisco Attorney General's Office announced the capture of Jose Manuel "S" on Monday. According to El Universal, the suspect was a manager of Distrito 5 restaurant in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, where the former governor was murdered.

In a joint operation during the weekend, Jalisco and Mexico City authorities arrested Jose Manuel "S" in the country's capital. State prosecutor Joaquin Mendez Ruiz said the suspect would be transferred to Puerto Vallarta to make him available to the judge who would handle the case.

State authorities have yet to explain the degree of his participation in this crime. However, the two arrest warrants issued against him cited the crimes of qualified homicide and cover-up.

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The Murder of Ex-Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval in Mexico

According to the New York Times, Aristoteles Sandoval was shot in the back inside the restroom of the Distrito 5 restaurant on December 18, 2020. It was reportedly one of the highest-profile political killings in Mexico recently.

There was no immediate information about the suspects and a possible motive at the time. However, security experts claimed that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel might be behind the murder of the former Jalisco governor, the New York Times reported.

"The Jalisco cartel has a complete dominion over Puerto Vallarta... No other group has the reach of these guys to assassinate a former governor. They are a cartel of great audacity, that isn't intimidated," Eduardo Guerrero, a security analyst at Lantia Consultores in Mexico City, told The Times.

The Jalisco cartel reportedly rose to power during Sandoval's term between 2013 and 2018, and it now controls much of the Jalisco state.

Falko Ernst, a senior Mexico analyst for the global think tank International Crisis Group, said the former governor's murder also highlights the rising presence of powerful drug cartels in local politics.

The death of Sandoval came just months after an assassination attempt on Mexico City's police chief, which was tied to the Jalisco cartel.

According to The Times, more than 31,000 murders were recorded in Mexico in 2020. Ricardo Mejia Berdeja, Mexico's deputy director of public security at the time, noted the country's murders that year were concentrated in six of 31 states, including Jalisco.

Mexico's Former Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval

The Guardian reported that Aristoteles Sandoval was dining with four others when he got up from the table and went to the toilet, where the killer shot him in the back. 

The former Jalisco governor did not die immediately. However, when his bodyguards tried to evacuate him from the restaurant, gunmen in the street outside the restaurant opened fire, seriously injuring one of the two bodyguards. Sandoval later died at a hospital.

State attorney general Gerardo Octavio Solis earlier said that the restaurant staff had cleaned the crime scene, removing bullet casings and blood and erasing video of the attack.

So far, 13 restaurant employees have reportedly been sentenced for the crime of concealment. However, they were all freed after paying the fines imposed on them.

According to the Jalisco governor Enrique Alfaro, the matter has been resolved because authorities now know who murdered Sandoval. He noted that all that remains was to capture them since they were hiding.

Sandoval was a rising star of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or P.R.I., which governed Mexico for most of the 20th century. However, his term was reportedly overshadowed by the rise of the Jalisco cartel.

The former Jalisco governor made headlines in October 2020, when he announced his resignation from the party's executive committee.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Mexico: Ex-Governor of Troubled Jalisco State Shot Dead - From Al Jazeera English