A National Guard car in Mexico (illustration). – Teun Voeten / Sipa USA / SIPA
The investigation is progressing in the case of the violent death of a Frenchman last November in Mexico. An individual suspected of being involved in the assassination of this restaurateur and his Mexican partner has been arrested by police in Mexico City, the local prosecutor’s office announced on Saturday.
The 39-year-old man was captured by police who suspect him of being “linked to the murder of two entrepreneurs who sold wine, including a French national,” said the prosecutor. Baptiste Lormand, who also held Mexican nationality, as well as his partner Luis Orozco, were found dead in the south of the country’s capital on November 28, 2020, the day after their disappearance. Their bodies bore marks of aggression.
A second arrest
The arrest of the alleged murderer came on Saturday in the Álvaro Obregón neighborhood in the western part of Mexico City. This arrest is the second in the framework of the investigation which had been opened following this double assassination which had shocked the French community present in the country.
Baptiste Lormand, in addition to selling fine wines, ran a restaurant in the chic district of Polanco, in the center of the capital. Some 200 French people living in Mexico City had organized a silent march to show their solidarity with the victim and his family and to protest against violence in the country, a recurring phenomenon for decades. In 2020, 34,552 homicides were recorded in Mexico, including 1,268 in Mexico City, according to government figures accusing armed gangs.