Mayor shot dead in Mexico months after surviving assassination attempt | Mexico
A mayor in the Mexican state of Morelos who survived an assassination attempt earlier this year was shot dead on Wednesday. He became the 14th mayor to be killed since Claudia Sheinbaum became mayor in October 2024.
Valentín Lavín Romero of the Green Party, an ally of the ruling left-wing Morena party, was injured when hitmen shot him at a highway gas station at the end of January.
This time, the hitmen entered the Temoac city hall near Mexico City in the middle of the day before shooting Lavín Romero and fleeing on a motorcycle.
Authorities have not yet identified the cause of the incident or the suspects, but the Morelos prosecutor’s office has promised to “complete all stages of investigation.”
Almost 100 mayors have been killed in Mexico since 2006, when then-president Felipe Calderon deployed the military to combat organized crime groups in Mexico, ultimately leading to an increase in drug-related violence.
Municipal government is the state’s least protected layer and is where criminal groups seek deals with authorities to strengthen their grip on the local area and its businesses.
According to local media reports, Lavín Romero was allegedly linked to local criminal groups. Her mother-in-law, a former treasurer of the municipal government, was arrested in September 2025 for alleged ties to a criminal group known as “Los Aparicio” and involvement in kidnappings.
In March, the Popular Front in Defense of Land and Water, an activist group, demanded that authorities investigate Lavín Romero for her alleged involvement in the murders of two activists, Samir Flores and Sandra Rosa Camacho Flores.
Around the same time – three months after the first attempt on his life – one banner left In the center of Temoac, Lavín is apparently approached by a criminal group who accuses Romero of protecting their rivals and demands that he comply with their interests.
The assassination came as Mexico’s federal government was taking steps to dismantle corruption networks between municipal officials and criminal groups as part of Operation Swarm, in which 85 officials were arrested in three states, including Morelos.
Mexico’s murder rate also fell by roughly half last year, according to official data, although security analysts say the actual reduction is likely smaller and more than 130,000 people are recorded as missing.
