A mayor in southern Mexico has been found murdered, local authorities said Saturday, less than a week after another politician was assassinated in the same region plagued by drug cartel violence.
The murder of Acacio Flores, head of Malinaltepec, The murder of Salvador Villalba FloresAnother mayor from Guerrero state was elected in the June 2nd vote.
The Guerrero state prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Flores’ death has been ruled a homicide and that investigators from the Ministry of Investigative Police are investigating the incident.
Flores’ body was found in the back of a van in Malinaltepec with a gunshot wound to the back of the head, a human rights activist told AFP.
The rights activist was involved in negotiating the release of an indigenous village’s mayor who was detained on Thursday. Local media reports said the mayor, who belongs to the Solidarity Encounter Party (PES), was attacked and kidnapped on his way to Alacatrazara.
Prosecutors in Guerrero state said a murder investigation had been opened, including a possible dispute over land ownership. In a statement on social media, Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado Pineda strongly condemned the killing and vowed authorities would “identify, locate and bring to justice those responsible.”
Just days before his death, Flores had said on social media that he was “making progress” and “impacting the most remote villages in the city.”
According to the non-governmental organization Data Civica, about 30 political candidates have been killed since Mexico’s election season began last September.
In Mexico’s general election held on June 2, leftist candidate Claudia Scheinbaum won. Elected By an overwhelming majority First female president country’s.
Since the election, two female politicians have been murdered. City council member She was shot and killed as she left her home in Guerrero. Her killing came just days after the arrest of the mayor of the western Mexican town and her bodyguard. Murdered outside the gymThis came just hours after Scheinbaum won the presidential election.
Guerrero, located on Mexico’s Pacific coast and one of the states most affected by drug cartel violence, recorded 1,890 homicides in 2023. The state is one of six Mexican states that the US State Department advises Americans to avoid entirely due to crime and violence.
