The mayor of a town in western Mexico was killed a day after Claudia Sheinbaum won the country’s record-breaking presidential election.
The Michoacan state government condemned “the murder of the municipal president of Cotija, Yolanda Sanchez Figueroa,” the regional interior ministry wrote in a post on X.
Sanchez, who was elected mayor in 2021, was standing just a few feet away from the municipal palace when she was shot multiple times.
No details regarding her murder were disclosed, but authorities said they launched a security operation to arrest the perpetrators.
Sheinbaum, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s successor, has pledged to continue the former president’s security policies, in contrast to her opponent, Xochitl Galvez, who campaigned on a tougher approach toward the cartels and increasing crime.
This past election cycle has been one of the most violent in Mexico, with at least 37 candidates assassinated during the campaign season.
Violence has reached alarming levels in states where criminal groups are fighting for territory, such as Michoacan. In this state, there is a dispute between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and a group known as “Pájaros Sierra.”
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Sanchez was kidnapped last year by the Jalisco Cartel while leaving a shopping mall in the city of Guadalajara.
The group allegedly threatened the mayor for opposing its takeover of her municipality’s police force. She was found alive three days later.
