The mayor of a city in western Mexico was assassinated on Monday, the regional government said. It came just 24 hours after Claudia Sheinbaum was elected as the first female president in the Latin American country.
The Michoacán state government condemned “the murder of the municipal president (mayor) of the city of Cotija, Yolanda Sánchez Figueroa,” the regional interior ministry said in a social media post.
The assassination of the female mayor came after Sheinbaum’s election victory offered hope for change in a country riven by widespread gender-based violence.
Sanchez, who was elected mayor in the 2021 election, was shot dead on a public road, local media reported. Authorities did not give details of the killing but said police had already launched an operation to apprehend the killers.
The politician was previously kidnapped last September while leaving a shopping centre in the city of Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco, which neighbours Michoacan. Three days later, the federal government said she was found alive.
According to local media reports, the kidnappers belonged to the powerful Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG), which allegedly threatened the mayor for opposing the criminal group’s takeover of her municipality’s police force.
Michoacán is famous for its tourist destinations and thriving agro-export industry, but is also one of the most violent states in the country due to the presence of extortion and drug trafficking gangs. In March, three farmers were killed by a bomb planted on a dirt road in Michoacán – just days after Mexico’s outgoing president admitted that an improvised explosive device had killed at least four soldiers in what he called a ‘trap’ probably set by a cartel.
Bloody election campaign
At least 23 political candidates have been killed during the campaign, including one mayoral candidate whose murder was caught on camera last week. Alfredo Cabrera’s death came just a day after a mayoral candidate was killed in the central Mexican state of Morelos.
The week before, nine people were killed in two attacks on mayoral candidates in the southern state of Chiapas. Both candidates survived.
Last month, six people, including a minor and mayoral candidate Lucero Lopez, were killed in an ambush after a campaign rally in the municipality of La Concordia, neighbouring Villa Corzo. One of the mayoral candidates was shot dead last month just as she began her campaign.
Some 27,000 soldiers and National Guard troops were deployed to beef up security on election day.
