Mayor shot dead in Mexico months after surviving assassination attempt

Valentín Lavín Romero is the 14th mayor to be murdered since Claudia Sheinbaum became president in 2024

A mayor was shot dead on Wednesday in the Mexican state of Morelos after having survived a previous assassination attempt earlier this year. He is the 14th mayor to be murdered since Claudia Sheinbaum became president in October 2024.

Valentín Lavín Romero, who was from the Green party, an ally of the ruling leftwing Morena party, was wounded at the end of January when hitmen shot him at a petrol station on a motorway.

This time the hitmen entered the town hall of Temoac, near Mexico City, in the middle of the day before shooting Lavín Romero dead and escaping on a motorbike.

Authorities are yet to identify a motive or suspects, but the Morelos prosecutor’s office vowed to “exhaust all lines of investigation”.

Almost 100 mayors have been murdered in Mexico since 2006, when the then president, Felipe Calderón, deployed the military to take on Mexico’s organised crime groups, ultimately causing drug-related violence to rise.

The municipal level of government is the least protected layer of the state and where criminal groups seek deals with authorities to strengthen their hold over the local territory and its businesses.

Local media reported Lavín Romero himself allegedly had ties to local crime groups. His mother-in-law, a former treasurer for the municipal government, was arrested in September 2025 for alleged ties to a criminal group known as Los Aparicio and involvement in kidnappings.

In March, the People’s Front in Defence of Land and Water, an activist group, demanded authorities investigate Lavín Romero for his alleged involvement in the murders of two activists, Samir Flores and Sandra Rosa Camacho Flores.

In May – three months after the first attempt on his life – a banner was left in the centre of Temoac, seemingly by a criminal group, accusing Lavín Romero of protecting its rivals and demanding he fall in line with their interests.

His assassination comes as Mexico’s federal government takes steps to unpick the corruption networks between municipal authorities and criminal groups as part of Operation Swarm, under which 85 officials have been arrested across three states, including Morelos.

According to official data, the homicide rate in Mexico has fallen by roughly half over the past year, although security analysts say the true reduction is likely smaller, while more than 130,000 people are registered as missing.