Mayor Found Murdered in Southern Mexico Amidst Wave of Political Violence
Local authorities announced Saturday that a mayor has been found murdered in southern Mexico, less than a week after another politician was assassinated in the same cartel-violence-plagued region.
Acacio Flores, the mayor of Malinaltepec, was killed just days after the assassination of Salvador Villalba Flores, another recently elected mayor from Guerrero state.
Prosecutors in Guerrero confirmed in a statement that Flores’ death had been ruled a homicide. Agents from the Ministerial Investigative Police are currently probing the case.
Flores’ body was discovered with a bullet wound to the back of the head, inside a van in Malinaltepec, according to a human rights campaigner who spoke to AFP.
The activist, involved in negotiations for Flores’ release, stated that the mayor had been detained on Thursday in an indigenous village.
Flores, a member of the Solidarity Encounter Party (PES), was attacked and kidnapped while traveling to Alacatlazala, local media reported.
Guerrero’s public prosecutor has opened an investigation into aggravated murder, with a possible land ownership dispute being part of the probe. Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado Pineda strongly condemned the murder on social media, vowing that authorities would “identify, locate and bring to justice the people responsible.”
In the days leading up to his death, Flores had been active on social media, stating he was “delivering results” and “leaving a mark on the most remote villages of the municipality.”
Since the start of Mexico’s campaign season last September, approximately 30 political candidates have been killed, according to Data Civica, a non-governmental organization.
In Mexico’s general election on June 2, leftist Claudia Sheinbaum was elected as the first woman president of the country by an overwhelming majority.
Since the election, two female politicians have been killed. Earlier this month, a local councilwoman was gunned down outside her home in Guerrero.
Her murder occurred a few days after the mayor of a town in western Mexico and her bodyguard were killed outside a gym, just hours after Sheinbaum won the presidency.
Guerrero, a state heavily affected by drug cartel violence due to its location along Mexico’s Pacific coast, recorded 1,890 murders in 2023. It is one of six states in Mexico that the U.S. State Department advises Americans to avoid completely, citing crime and violence.
