Morelos local deputy Gabriela Marín Sánchez was murdered on Wednesday, October 5, in the parking lot of a pharmacy located on Domingo Diez Avenue, in the city of Cuernavaca, Morelos. Two armed men on a motorcycle shot her and her escort, who managed to survive the attack and confirm the victim's identity.
Once again the attack occurs at the seam, the exposure to the highest risk environment at the time of arrivals and departures, which has served as the setting for most of the attacks on prominent public figures around the world, and which we have discussed repeatedly in our books, articles and videos. Identifying and cutting the seams is essential to significantly reduce risks.
It is also evident that the victim was observed for a prolonged period of time and also followed before the homicide by the criminals, without the protectors being aware of it. We have also strongly emphasized the importance of both counter-surveillance and early detection of hostile activities.
In this case, we want to focus on one particular factor that stands out in this attack. The deputy was killed when she herself went to the pharmacy to buy medicine. As we have discussed on many occasions, executive protection is not the old West, but a planning and logistical process that reduces the executive's exposure to risk. Reducing these exposures, through good communication with the protégé, is the primary job of the protector. Particularly at issue here is what we call the protective comfort factor. Protective agents often refuse to perform executive comfort activities because they consider that they are not part of their job. However, as we explain in the following video,
there are many executive comfort activities that are directly related to your security, while there are others that are not.
Making a purchase for the executive, if there is no other person who can do it, is a security task and not only for convenience. The fact that the protector makes a purchase in any establishment, instead of the protégé, reduces the exposure of the protégé to risk, since he/she will not have to go out and expose him/herself, as happened in the case of the deputy. We understand that in some situations these purchases may be somewhat uncomfortable, which is why it is advisable that the protégés also have women as protectors. Likewise, nowadays the protectors have at their disposal several applications that are useful to be able to receive food or some article from the pharmacy, without the need to expose the protected, nor neglect it, going out to make the purchase the protector. So, if the protective comfort had been applied in this case, the attack would have been avoided, since the victim would not have been exposed in the corner of a pharmacy.
It is clear that, because the deputy was previously observed and studied, this attack would have been attempted elsewhere, so, once again, counter-surveillance is reaffirmed as indispensable to prevent a planned aggression. However, knowing and applying logistics and protective comfort are fundamental to reduce risks within a comprehensive protection system.
Only when we understand that executive protection is not just armed escorts waiting for aggression to react, but a set of measures that reduce exposure to risk, will we have a safer profession for both the protected and the protectors.
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