Crime & Justice

Town mayor among 18 killed in shooting in Mexico

Chilpancingo, Mexico, Oct 6 (EFE).- At least 18 people have been killed by gunmen in San Miguel Totolapan in the Mexican state of Guerrero.

The mayor of the small town, Conrado Mendoza Almeda, his father Juan, who was also a former mayor, and other local officials were among the dead, police said.

The state Attorney General’s Office (FGE) reported that unidentified gunmen perpetrated two attacks on Wednesday afternoon: the first on the town hall, which was left riddled with bullets and its windows blown out, while the second was nearby where a meeting presided by the mayor was being held.

In a statement on Thursday, the FGE “condemned the lamentable incidents in San Miguel Totolapan.”

A team of local and state police investigators and equipment was being sent to the town to “join the joint operation to locate and detain the perpetrators of the armed attack in which Conrado ‘N’ and Juan ‘N’, local mayor and former mayor, were deprived of their lives.”

The governor of the state of Guerrero, Evelyn Salgado Pineda, condemned the shooting and insisted that there would be no impunity for the assailants.

The parliamentary group of the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in the local Congress, of which the mayor and his father were members, demanded that the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) take over the investigation due to the severity and magnitude of the attack.

The shooting has been attributed to the Los Tequileros, a criminal group which minutes after the incident released a video on social media announcing their return to the region known for the production and trafficking of drugs.

The territory is being fought over with La Familia Michoacana, a rival group from the neighboring state of Michoacán.

Los Tequileros plagued the region between 2015 and 2017 until their former leader, Raybel Jacobo de Almonte, was murdered.

The murder of Mendoza Almeda means that 60 municipal leaders have been murdered in Mexico, including mayors, councilors and trustees, since the start of president Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s six-year term in December 2018, according to the consulting firm Etellekt. EFE

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