Mexican Mayor Killed Day After Taking Workplace

The mayor of the Mexican city Temixco was killed just one day after being sworn into office.

According to local authorities, Mota was shot dead in her home around 7 a.m. Saturday in Pueblo Viejo, a small town that’s about two hours away from Mexico City. Officials said those taken into custody were a 32-year-old woman, an 18-year-old man and a minor.

Ramon Castro Castro, Roman Catholic bishop of Cuernavaca, celebrated Mass at Mota’s home Sunday and later spoke critically of a state where some areas are in control of organized crime.

Morelos’ state prosecutor, Javier Pérez Durón, said that the people who had murdered Griseal Mota would be subject to “the full weight of the law”.

Morelos is one of the states with the highest incidence of organised crime in Mexico, attributed to the presence of drug cartels.

State Governor Graco Ramirez confirmed the murder in a tweet, calling the attack against a “young and widely beloved partner” a provocation by criminals, which his party would not give into.

A Mexican mayor who promised to rid her town of organized crime was shot dead less than a day after taking office. Law enforcement pursued the suspects, killing two and arresting three more. Though Cuernavaca is the state capital of Morelos, Temixco is the seat of several state institutions including the Public Security Commission, which coordinates state and local police forces.

The mayor belonged to the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). “Urgent action is needed from the government to stop this wave of violence”, the assertion stated.In 2006, then-President Felipe Calderon started a crackdown on organized crime, still since then violent homicides have spiked. More than 100,000 people were killed in the Mexican drug war for almost a decade.