An area Mexican politician was shot and killed on Monday whereas eating at a restaurant in western Mexico’s troubled Jalisco state, authorities stated.
Jose Luis Pereira, a senior member of the Teocaltiche metropolis authorities, was attacked at round 5:00 pm at a seafood restaurant, in accordance with the native prosecutor’s workplace.
“Police officers responded to the scene after receiving a report of a person injured by a firearm,” the prosecutor’s workplace stated in a assertion. “Upon arrival, along with medical personnel, officers confirmed that the victim no longer had vital signs.”
Town and its surrounding area have seen bouts of violence in current months. Simply days in the past, a mom trying to find lacking kinfolk was murdered alongside together with her son in Jalisco.
The state’s municipal police chief was murdered on April 15.
In March, a lawyer who ran a neighborhood information Fb web page was killed in neighboring Guanajuato state in what state prosecutors known as a criminal offense “against freedom of expression.”
Native media additionally reported in February that the stays of 4 Teocaltiche law enforcement officials had been present in plastic luggage alongside the facet of a highway, after eight officers disappeared together with a driver taking them to close by Guadalajara.
ULISES RUIZ/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
After the kidnappings, the state authorities took management of the Teocaltiche police, accusing native regulation enforcement of being infiltrated by gangs.
Western Mexico is house to the Jalisco New Technology cartel, which was designated a terrorist group by U.S. President Donald Trump in February.
Violence linked to drug trafficking teams has skyrocketed in Mexico in current a long time, with round 480,000 individuals murdered previously 19 years.
Greater than 124,000 individuals have been formally registered as lacking in Mexico, and Jalisco leads the nationwide statistics with greater than 15,000 instances.
Politicians focused with violence in Mexico
Mexico’s drug cartels have typically targeted assassination makes an attempt on politicians and mayoral candidates, in a bid to regulate native police or extort cash from municipal governments.
In December 2024, a Mexican congressman who was a member of the ruling coalition was shot lifeless in Veracruz state.
About two months earlier than that, a mayor was murdered and decapitated within the southern state of Guerrero. The subsequent month, a former prosecutor and native police official was arrested in reference to the grisly killing.
In June 2024, a mayor was killed in southern Mexico, lower than per week after one other politician was assassinated in the identical area tormented by cartel violence.
That very same month, a neighborhood councilwoman was gunned down as she was leaving her house in Guerrero. Her homicide got here a couple of days after the mayor of a city in western Mexico and her bodyguard had been killed exterior of a gymnasium, simply hours after Sheinbaum received the presidency.
In March 2024, a mayor was shot lifeless whereas at a restaurant together with his 14-year-old son in Morelia, the capital of western Michoacan state. His son survived.
