Mexico security minister to step down to seek state governorship

Mexican Security Minister Alfonso Durazo said on Wednesday he would step down from his post to pursue the governorship of the northern border state of Sonora in 2021.

The decision by Durazo, a close ally of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, was widely expected. "I'm leaving the Cabinet but not the political project that the president of the republic has historically led," he said at Lopez Obrador's regular news conference.

Lopez Obrador had said only minutes earlier that he was still trying to change Durazo's mind and called him an extraordinary public servant.