Elected mayor dragged from bus and murdered near resort of Acapulco

The elected mayor of a small community near the crime-ridden Mexican resort Acapulco was murdered early Monday, local prosecutors said – the latest in a series of attacks on politicians.

Salvador Villalba Flores, who was due to take office in October in Copala, a town of about 4,000 people about 129 kilometers southeast of Acapulco, was shot dead on a highway, prosecutors in the state of Guerrero said in a statement.

The public prosecutor’s office said it had launched an investigation into the murder but declined to provide further details.

The local newspaper El Sur de Guerrero reported that Villalba was a retired Navy captain who was normally protected by the National Guard, but was on his way to Mexico City alone at the time of his assassination.

“The mayor-elect was dragged from the bus he was traveling on when it stopped near San Pedro las Playas” and shot, the outlet reported.

Local media also reported that Villalba decided to run for mayor after his friend, a candidate, was murdered in June 2023.

In the parliamentary elections in Mexico on June 2, the left-wing Claudia Sheinbaum chosen with an overwhelming majority as first president of the country.

Mexicans elected not only a new president, but also members of Congress, several state governors, and countless local officials – a total of over 20,000 positions.

Since the start of the Mexican election campaign last September, more than two dozen political candidates have been killed, according to the non-governmental organization Data Civica.

beginning of the month City Councilor was gunned down as she left her home in Guerrero. Her murder came days after the mayor of a western Mexican city and her bodyguard killed in front of a gymjust hours after Sheinbaum won the presidential election.

Acapulco was once a playground for the rich and famous, but over the past decade it has lost its shine as foreign tourists have been frightened away by the bloodshed that has turned it into one of the most violent cities in the world.

Last month, Five people were killed in an armed attack in Acapulco, just three days after 10 more bodies were found in the holiday town.

In Guerrero, one of the states most affected by drug cartel violence due to its location on Mexico’s Pacific coast, 1,890 murders were recorded in 2023.

More than 450,000 people have been murdered and thousands are missing since the Mexican government deployed the army to combat drug trafficking in 2006.