Héctor Melesio Cuén Ojeda

Héctor Melesio Cuén Ojeda (October 25, 1955 – July 25, 2024) was a Mexican chemist, pharmacist, biologist and politician. He was a rector of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa from 2005 to 2009 and municipal president of Culiacán, Sinaloa, between January 2011 and February 2012. In 2024 he was shot dead in his vehicle in Culiacán.

Life and career Cuén Ojeda was born on October 25, 1955, in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, Mexico. He studied at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, where he earned a PhD. After graduating from the university, he returned and was its rector from 2005 to 2009. From 2011 to 2012, he was the municipal president of Culiacán and, from 2013 to 2016, he sat in the Congress of Sinaloa.

He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies from the Institutional Revolutionary Party's proportional representation list for the first electoral region in the June 2024 general election.

Assassination

Cuén Ojeda was killed on July 25, 2024. He was 68.

Initial reports of the crime published by the attorney-general of Sinaloa stated he had been shot in his vehicle at a filling station near Culiacán, but later claims maintained he was murdered at a ranch where he had been lured to attend a meeting with drug trafficker Ismael Zambada to settle his disputes with Governor Rubén Rocha Moya; blood samples located there by the federal attorney-general's office (FGR) appeared to confirm that version.

Sinaloa Attorney-General Sara Bruna Quiñónez Estrada resigned on 16 August 2024.