Current:Home > Contact-usMayor shot dead while at restaurant with his 14-year-old son in Mexico-LoTradeCoin
Mayor shot dead while at restaurant with his 14-year-old son in Mexico
View Date:2024-12-23 20:42:57
A mayor was shot dead at a restaurant in Mexico on Saturday, the regional prosecutor's office said, the latest politically related killing in the country plagued by violence and organized crime.
Guillermo Torres, 39, and his 14-year-old son were attacked at a restaurant in Morelia, the capital of western Michoacan state, the prosecutor's office said in a statement. His son survived.
He was elected mayor of Michoacan's Churumuco municipality as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 2022, but recently quit the party and publically voiced sympathy for the ruling Morena, according to local media.
Torres is the latest politician to be murdered in Mexico in the run-up to the presidential elections on June 2, in which 20,000 local and federal positions and the entire Congress will be voted on.
Two mayoral candidates were murdered on February 26: Miguel Angel Zavala Reyes and Armando Perez Luna of the Morena and National Action Party, respectively.
Last month, prosecutors in southern Mexico said that mayoral candidate
Tomás Morales was killed in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero.
Between June 4, 2023, and March 26 this year, 50 people have been murdered in "episodes of electoral violence", 26 of them aiming for popular seats, according to a report by the Laboratorio Electoral think tank.
Mexico's drug cartels have often focused assassination attempts on mayors and mayoral candidates, in a bid to control local police or extort money from municipal governments.
Michoacan state, Mexico's main avocado-producing region, is the scene of constant fighting between organized crime groups, including the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Last month, a state police officer was reportedly decapitated and her two bodyguards were killed in a highway attack in Michoacan.
Also in March, three farmers were killed by a bomb apparently planted in Michoacan. That came just days after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador acknowledged that an improvised explosive device killed at least four soldiers in what he called a "trap" likely set by a cartel in Michoacan.
Killings and abductions are daily occurrences in Mexico, where nearly 450,000 people have been murdered since 2006 in a spiral of drug-related violence, according to official data.
- In:
- Mexico
- Murder
- Cartel
veryGood! (71418)
Related
- Trump's election has women swearing off sex with men. It's called the 4B movement.
- Mikey Madison wanted to do sex work 'justice' in 'Anora.' An Oscar could be next.
- Mexico appears to abandon its ‘hugs, not bullets’ strategy as bloodshed plagues the country
- Mexican man gets 39 years in Michigan prison for a killing that became campaign issue
- Tennessee fugitive accused of killing a man and lying about a bear chase is caught in South Carolina
- Sumitomo Rubber closing western New York tire plant and cutting 1,550 jobs
- Arizona high court won’t review Kari Lake’s appeal over 2022 governor’s race defeat
- The 2025 Grammy Nominations Are Finally Here
- Trump ally Steve Bannon blasts ‘lawfare’ as he faces New York trial after federal prison stint
- Chappell Roan admits she hasn't found 'a good mental health routine' amid sudden fame
Ranking
- Man killed in Tuskegee University shooting in Alabama is identified. 16 others were hurt
- Arizona high court won’t review Kari Lake’s appeal over 2022 governor’s race defeat
- Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight will feature Canadian for play-by-play commentary
- Flooding closes interstate as heavy rains soak southeast Georgia
- Powerball winning numbers for Nov. 13 drawing: Jackpot rises to $113 million
- Tia Mowry on her 'healing journey,' mornings with her kids and being on TV without Tamera
- Who will buy Infowars? Both supporters and opponents of Alex Jones interested in bankruptcy auction
- Prince William Says Princess Charlotte Cried the First Time She Saw His Rugged Beard
Recommendation
-
Pennsylvania House Republicans pick new floor leader after failing to regain majority
-
Boy, 13, in custody after trying to enter Wisconsin elementary school while armed, police say
-
Nordstrom Rack Clear the Rack Sale Insane Deals: $18 Free People Jumpsuits, $7 Olaplex, $52 Uggs & More
-
A Fed rate cut may be coming, but it may be too small for Americans to notice
-
College Football Playoff ranking release: Army, Georgia lead winners and losers
-
Mexico appears to abandon its ‘hugs, not bullets’ strategy as bloodshed plagues the country
-
Mariah Carey Shares Rare Photo of Her and Nick Cannon's 13-Year-Old Son
-
Federal judge hears arguments in Shilo Sanders' bankruptcy case