Mexican Mayor Slain Day After Taking Office

Local residents gather on January 2, 2016 outside the house of Gisela Mota, newly elected Mayor of Temixco, Morelos State, Mexico, murdered on Saturday at home by gunmen.

Gisela Mota waves during her swearing in ceremony as mayor of Temixco, Morelos State, Mexico. Mexico City newspaper EL Universal said she was attacked at her home by four armed gunmen.

“The alleged perpetrators of the attack have already been arrested”, Morelos Governor Graco Ramirez announced on his Twitter account late Saturday.

Officials attributed her killing to organized crime.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office in December 2012, has pledged to reduce the murders, kidnappings, and extortion haunting Mexicans. Although Cuernavaca is the state capital of Morelos, Temixco is the seat of several state institutions together with the Public Safety Commission, which coordinates state and native cop officers forces. She was killed the following day. This is a challenge by organized crime. Federal & state forces are deployed in Cuernavaca & municipalities near the Guerrero state border in what is known as “Operation Delta”.

This is while local mayors and officials across Mexico are increasingly being targeted by the country’s drug cartels.