2024-03-31 15:02:10
On Saturday night, a commando murdered the mayor of the municipality of Churumuco, in the Mexican state of Michoacán (west), a region hit by violence linked to organized crime, the regional prosecutor’s office reported in a statement.
Guillermo Torres, 39, and his 14-year-old son “were attacked” by gunfire in a restaurant in Morelia, the capital of Michoacán, the institution detailed.
The minor survived, while the politician died while receiving medical attention at a hospital.
Torres won the election for that mayoralty as standard bearer of the once hegemonic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 2022, but he recently left that group and made public his sympathy for the ruling Morena party, according to the local press.
The crime occurs in the middle of the electoral campaign for the presidential elections on June 2, in which 20,000 local and federal positions and the entire bicameral Congress will also be renewed.
The murder of the mayor is added to those that occurred on February 26, when Miguel Ángel Zavala Reyes and Armando Pérez Luna, candidates for Morena and the National Action Party (PAN) for mayor of Maravatío, also a municipality of Michoacán, were murdered.
From June 4, 2023 to March 26, 2024, 50 people have been murdered in “episodes of electoral violence”, of which 26 aspired to a popularly elected position, the consultancy Laboratorio Electoral noted in its latest report.
Michoacán, the main producer of avocado, is the scene of constant fights between organized crime groups, including the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
At the end of February, four soldiers were killed and nine others were injured in an attack with explosives against an army patrol in the municipality of Aguililla.
Mexico, with 126 million inhabitants, has recorded more than 450,000 murders since 2006, the majority attributed to criminal organizations.
#Mexican #mayor #region #disputed #drug #traffickers #murdered