Mayor-elect stopped bus and murdered near Acapulco resort

The elected mayor of a small municipality near the Mexican beach town of Acapulco was murdered early Monday, local prosecutors said – the latest in a series of attacks targeting politicians.

Salvador Villalba Flores – who was due to take office in October in Copala, a town of about 4,000 people about 130 kilometers southeast of Acapulco – was shot dead while driving on a highway, officials said. Guerrero state prosecutors in a statement.

Prosecutors said they had opened an investigation into the killing but declined to provide further details.

Local newspaper El Sur de Guerrero reported that Villalba was a retired navy captain who was usually protected by National Guard escorts but was traveling alone to Mexico City when he was killed.

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

Local media also reported that Villalba decided to run for mayor after the assassination of his candidate friend in June 2023.

In the Mexican general elections on June 2, leftist Claudia Sheinbaum was elected elected by an overwhelming majority, as first female president from the country.

In addition to choosing a new president, Mexicans voted for members of Congress, several state governors and myriad local officials, a total of more than 20,000 positions.

Since the Mexican election campaign began last September, more than two dozen political candidates have been killed, according to Data Civica, a nongovernmental organization.

Earlier this month, a local municipal councilor was shot dead as she left her home in Guerrero. His killing came days after the mayor of a western Mexico town and his bodyguard were killed. killed in front of a gymjust hours after Sheinbaum won the presidency.

Acapulco was once a playground for the rich and famous, but it has lost its luster over the past decade as foreign tourists have been scared away by the bloodshed that has made it one of the world's most popular cities. violent in the world.

Last month, five people were killed during an armed attack in Acapulco, just three days later 10 other bodies were found in the seaside town.

Guerrero, one of the states most affected by drug cartel violence given its location along Mexico's Pacific coast, recorded 1,890 murders in 2023.

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