He was elected mayor of a small municipality near a crime-ridden Mexican resort city. Acapulco The assassination, which took place early Monday morning, was the latest in a series of attacks targeting politicians, local prosecutors said.
Salvador Villalba Flores, who was due to take office in October, was shot dead while driving on the highway in Copala, a town of about 4,000 people about 80 miles southeast of Acapulco, the Guerrero state prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Prosecutors said they had opened a murder investigation but gave no further details.
Local newspaper El Sur de Guerrero reported that Villalba, a retired Navy captain who would normally be escorted by the National Guard, was traveling alone to Mexico City when he was killed.
The media reported that “the mayor-elect was removed from the bus after it stopped near San Pedro las Playas” and shot.
Local media also reported that Villalba decided to run for mayor in June 2023 after a friend who was a candidate was murdered.
In Mexico’s general election held on June 2, leftist candidate Claudia Scheinbaum won. Elected By an overwhelming majority First female president country’s.
In addition to choosing a new president, Mexicans also voted for more than 20,000 offices, including members of Congress, several state governors and numerous local officials.
More than 20 candidates have been killed since Mexico’s election season began last September, according to the non-governmental organization Data Civica.
Earlier this month, local City council member She was shot and killed as she left her home in Guerrero. Her killing came just days after the arrest of the mayor of the western Mexican town and her bodyguard. Murdered outside the gymThis came just hours after Scheinbaum won the presidential election.
Once a playground for the rich and famous, Acapulco has lost its luster in the past decade as bloodshed scared off foreign tourists and the city has become one of the world’s most violent.
last month, Five people died Just three days after the armed attack in Acapulco Ten other bodies were found In a resort city.
Guerrero state, located on Mexico’s Pacific coast and one of the states most affected by drug cartel violence, recorded 1,890 homicides in 2023.
More than 450,000 people have been killed and thousands more missing since Mexico sent in troops to combat drug trafficking in 2006.
