Mexican official says drug gang behind killing of newly elected mayor

On Saturday, the mayor of a town only 90 kilometres from the capital Mexico City was murdered less than one day after taking office (“Mexico mayor slain a day after taking office”, AFP, January 3).

The attackers entered her house Saturday morning while her family was present and killed her in the doorway, said Alberto Capella, Morelos state security commissioner, at a press briefing. Los Rojos is a faction of the Gulf Cartel, said to be aligned with the Sinaloa Cartel and a rival to Los Zetas, another of most powerful and violent drug cartels in the country.

A spokesperson with the Democratic Revolution Party described Gisela as “a strong and fearless woman who on taking office as mayor, declared that her fight against crime would be frontal and direct”.

Ramirez said at a news conference Sunday that the killing was a warning to local officials not to accept unified state control of police forces, a new system aimed at combatting corruption in local police forces. He said the suspects fired on federal police and soldiers from a vehicle. Many Mexican mayors have been killed in the past by drug gangs.

Ramirez ordered security measures for all of the state’s mayors, though he gave no details on what that involved.

Temixco is a city of about 100,000 people neighboring Cuernavaca, a resort and industrial city which has been suffering kidnappings and extortion linked to organized crime groups.

Despite Blanco’s refusal, Ramirez announced he was imposing state command over Cuernavaca’s police, and he suggested dark forces were influencing the pugnacious former athlete, who has never before held public office. “If you don’t cooperate with organized crime, look at what will happen to you”.

Following the killing, two suspects were killed in a clash with police and three others arrested — a 32-year-old woman, an 18-year-old man and a minor. Temixco joined that system, though the state’s main city, Cuernavaca, has resisted. Officials said the detained suspects have been tied to other crimes.