Mayor slain in southern Mexico
Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico, Jun 8 (EFE).- The mayor of a town in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas was fatally shot Wednesday at his residence, authorities said.
Ruben de Jesus Valdez was found dead inside his vehicle, parked on the street outside his home in Teopisca, a town of roughly 17,000 people southeast of Tuxtla Gutierrez, the state capital.
The assailants apparently opened fire as soon as the mayor boarded the vehicle, according to neighbors, who said that the gunmen had already fled by the time they looked out their windows after hearing the shots.
Police found 16 shell-casings at the scene.
Valdez’s slaying brings to 17 the number of mayors murdered since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in December 2018, according to Etellekt, a consultancy that tracks political violence.
The death toll is 21 percent higher than at the same point in the 2012-2018 administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, Etellekt says, putting the total number of mayors murdered over the last 22 years at 94.
Valdez was elected on June 6, 2021, on the ticket of the Green Ecological Party of Mexico, an ally of Lopez Obrador’s leftist Morena party, following a campaign that saw five of his associates wounded in an attack. EFE
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