Authorities in the western Mexican state of Colima said they killed three people suspected of murdering two family members of Mexico’s education minister on Saturday.

Colima, located on the Pacific coast of Mexico, 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.

The local prosecutor’s office said police officers killed three suspects in a 4:30 a.m. (1030 GMT) shooting of two women, who Mexican Public Education Secretary Mario Delgado later identified as his aunt and cousin.

They did not specify a motive for the shooting, or whether they are looking for other suspects.

“Deep shock, anger and sadness over the events that took place this morning in Colima, where my aunt Eugenia Delgado and my cousin Sheila were brutally murdered in their home,” Delgado wrote on X on Saturday.

“Throughout my childhood, my aunt Queña — as we affectionately called her — made my birthday cake every year. That’s how she earned her living, working hard, selling delicious cakes and traditional Colima food prepared as only she knew how. Now she’s with my grandparents and my father, her beloved brother,” he wrote on X.

Officers followed the suspect’s vehicle to a home in Colima Saturday afternoon and killed three people in a shootout, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Investigators found weapons and clothing related to the double shooting at the suspects’ home.

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

Last month, Sheinbaum said efforts to crack down on Mexican cartels and slow northward migration showed “convincing results” in an effort to forestall the Trump administration’s talk of intervention.

Her comments came after President Trump last week threatened US military action against Mexican drug cartels. Mr Trump told Fox News that the United States had “taken out 97% of the drugs that come in by water” and that the US was “going to start hitting land now, with respect to the cartels”.