Image source, Private archive
The municipal president of San Mateo Piñas, Lilia Gema García Soto, was killed on Sunday inside the mayor of the town of the State of Oaxaca, in southeastern Mexico.
Local authorities reported that four police dresses arrived on a motorcycle, entered the government enclosure and shot at the mayor.
The municipal agent of the hot water community, Eli Gregorio García Ruiz, also died in the attack.
The governor of Oaxaca, Solomon Jara Cruz, condemned the murder.
“There can be no impunity before this event. We will collaborate with the State Attorney General to clarify the facts and do justice,” he said.
San Mateo Piñas is a municipality of 2,000 inhabitants, near the Mexican Pacific coast, which has been declared in Food Emergency. It is part of a system of native peoples of the south of the country that govern themselves through mechanisms of “uses and customs” for which they choose the local councilor every three years.
García Soto, who assumed his position in 2022, was close to finishing his mandate. He arrived at the Mayor's denouncing the corruption of his predecessors after years of community work. The opposition had denounced illegal practices within its administration.
According to the Integralia consultancy, in the first quarter of 2025, 50 Mexican politicians were killed by organized crime, and 80% of them were municipal leaders or candidates whose work probably interposed with the interests of armed groups operating in the regions and have aspirations of political and territorial control.
Oaxaca is the second state with more incidents of political violence in Mexico.
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