Two teachers from public and higher-education institutions lost their lives in direct armed attacks reported in the municipalities of Escuinapa, Sinaloa, and Manzanillo, Colima.
Both victims were attacked while carrying out routine journeys in the presence of or near their families. The cases are being investigated under the corresponding femicide protocols by the state prosecutors’ offices.
In Sinaloa, Carolina Beltrán Romero, 39, was shot and killed in the downtown area of Escuinapa while she was preparing to leave for work.
She worked as a Special Education teacher assigned to the Regular Education Support Services Units (USAER) of the Secretariat of Public Education and Culture (SEPyC) in the neighboring municipality of Rosario.
She also served as head of the Fixed Assets Department in the Escuinapa City Treasury.
The attack occurred on Miguel Hidalgo Street. According to initial reports, the teacher and municipal employee was intercepted by armed individuals and was found dead inside her personal vehicle.
At the scene, experts from the Sinaloa State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) collected spent shell casings and found a message signed by a criminal group, which was incorporated into the investigation file.
Carolina was the mother of two young people and made desserts under her own personal brand to help support her household.
With her death, at least 11 femicides have been recorded in Escuinapa so far this year and 81 in the state of Sinaloa during 2026.
Meanwhile, in the Santiago district of the municipality of Manzanillo, Colima, Noemí Isabel Ríos Torres, a teacher at the Manzanillo campus of the Higher Institute of Normal Education of the State of Colima (ISENCO), was shot and killed.
The armed attack occurred on De las Rosas Avenue, in the Valle Dorado neighborhood. The teacher was driving her personal vehicle accompanied by her children when armed individuals directly opened fire on her.
Despite the arrival of emergency responders, the teacher died at the scene due to the severity of her injuries.
The Colima State Attorney General’s Office confirmed that investigations had been opened with a gender perspective and under the femicide protocol.
“In addition to processing the scene, where evidence and witness accounts were collected, investigative agents under the direction of the Public Prosecutor carried out the initial procedures and began investigations to precisely establish the circumstances in which the events occurred,” the agency reported.
“It is likewise working to identify and locate whoever or whomever may be responsible, in order to bring them before the judicial authorities and ensure that the penalties established by law are applied, so that this case does not go unpunished,” it added.
Civil society organizations, including the “Griselda Álvarez” Center for Support for Women (CAM), together with ISENCO administrators and students, issued statements demanding that the case be clarified, that those responsible be arrested, and that comprehensive protection measures be implemented for the victim’s children.
So far, neither of the two prosecutors’ offices has reported any arrests in connection with these crimes against the teachers.
Source: reforma
