Mexican security official who escaped assassination is replaced

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Minerva Bautista, a top security official who survived an assassination attempt in which her convoy was pounded with more than 2,000 rounds of ammo, was replaced Sunday. Bautista, who recounted her ordeal to The Times in a June 27 article, was head of security for the state of Michoacan and had, to the surprise of some, resumed her duties after the April attack.

On Sunday, however, state officials announced at a news conference that she was being replaced by a retired army commander, a sign, perhaps, of surging violence in the region and the need for a security commander with military experience.

It was not clear whether Bautista was forced to step down. Quadratin, a Michoacan Internet news agency, reported (in Spanish) that she tendered her resignation Saturday and was present at the news conference introducing her replacement, retired army Gen. Manuel Garcia Ruiz.

‘I think it is time to step down, but I am not retiring from work on behalf of my state,’ she said, according to the official Mexican news agency Notimex.

E-mail queries to Bautista’s press office were not answered.

-- Tracy Wilkinson in Mexico City