Mayor Shot Dead in Mexico Months After Surviving Assassination Attempt

The Guardian reports that Valentín Lavín Romero, the Green party mayor of Temoac in the central Mexican state of Morelos, was shot dead on Wednesday inside the town hall, after gunmen entered in the middle of the day and escaped on a motorbike. He is the 14th mayor to be murdered since Claudia Sheinbaum became president in October 2024.

Lavín Romero had already survived one assassination attempt this year — hitmen wounded him at a petrol station on a motorway at the end of January. This time, authorities have yet to identify a motive or suspects, though the Morelos prosecutor's office said it would exhaust all lines of investigation. Local outlets reported that Lavín Romero himself had alleged ties to local crime groups, and he had been under suspicion before: his mother-in-law, a former municipal treasurer, was arrested last September over alleged links to a criminal group and involvement in kidnappings, and an activist group had demanded an inquiry into his alleged role in the deaths of two activists. A banner left in central Temoac in May, seemingly by a criminal group, accused him of protecting its rivals and demanded he fall in line.

The killing fits a pattern that long predates the current administration: nearly 100 mayors have been murdered in Mexico since 2006, and municipal office is the least protected layer of the state — the level where criminal groups seek deals with authorities to tighten their hold on local territory and businesses. The federal government has been working to unpick those networks under an operation that has seen 85 officials arrested across three states, including Morelos. Official data shows the homicide rate has fallen by roughly half over the past year, though security analysts say the true reduction is probably smaller, and more than 130,000 people remain registered as missing.