This article is from the source 'washpo' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/mexico-mayor-slain-a-day-after-taking-office/2016/01/02/7ef0e86e-b1af-11e5-b281-43c0b56f61fa_story.html

The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 3 Version 4
Mexico mayor slain a day after taking office Mexico mayor slain a day after taking office
(about 5 hours later)
MEXICO CITY — Officials say they have killed two people and arrested three others linked to the slaying of a Mexico mayor who had taken office only a day earlier. The state’s governor said organized crime was behind the attack. MEXICO CITY — Three people, including a minor, were being held Sunday in the slaying of a newly inaugurated mayor in a gang-troubled central Mexican city.
Gunmen killed Mayor Gisela Mota Saturday at her house in Temixco, one of several cities around Cuernavaca that have been struggling with kidnappings and extortions by organized crime gangs. Morelos Gov. Graco Ramirez ordered flags on state buildings flown at half-mast and called for three days of mourning following the murder of Temixco Mayor Gisela Mota.
Police quickly located a car of presumed assailants who opened fire on officers, the Morelos state government said in a statement. He blamed organized crime for killing the 33-year-old Mota, a former federal congresswoman who had been sworn in as mayor less than a day before she was gunned down in her home Saturday morning.
In a separate car, officials said they found two guns, one of them a semiautomatic, and ski masks. Ramirez ordered security measures for all of the state’s mayors, though he gave no details on what that involved.
Three people were detained — a 32-year-old woman, an 18-year-old and a minor. Morelos Attorney General Javier Perez Duron said the suspects have been tied to other crimes, but declined to provide more details. Following Mota’s killing, two suspects were killed in a clash with police and three others arrested. Officials said they include a 32-year-old woman, an 18-year-old man and the minor. They gave few other details, though state Attorney General Javier Perez Duron said they had been tied to other crimes.
On his Twitter account, Morelos Gov. Graco Ramirez attributed Mota’s killing to organized crime, without citing a particular cartel or gang. He later announced state officials were establishing special security measures for all off Morelos’ mayors.
One organization representing mayors in the country, the Association of Local Authorities of Mexico, issued a statement saying nearly 100 mayors have been killed across Mexico over the past decade, “principally at the hands of organized crime.”
Mota, who had been a federal congresswoman, had been sworn into office on New Year’s Day.
Her center-left Democratic Revolution Party released a statement describing her as “a strong and brave woman who on taking office as mayor, declared that her fight against crime would be frontal and direct.”
Temixco, with about 100,000 people, is a suburb of Cuernavaca, a city famed among tourists for its colonial center, gardens and jacaranda-decked streets. “The city of eternal spring” was long a favorite weekend getaway for people from nearby Mexico City.Temixco, with about 100,000 people, is a suburb of Cuernavaca, a city famed among tourists for its colonial center, gardens and jacaranda-decked streets. “The city of eternal spring” was long a favorite weekend getaway for people from nearby Mexico City.
Drug and extortion gangs have plagued the state in recent years, driving away some tourists and residents. On its southwest border is the gang-plagued state of Guerrero, whose Pacific Coast resort of Acapulco has seen a sharp increase in murders. But drug and extortion gangs have plagued the area in recent years, driving away some tourists and residents. The expressway — and drug routes — between Mexico City and the country’s murder capital of Acapulco cuts through Cuernavaca and Temixco.
Neither the governor nor prosecutors indicated which criminal organization might be involved.
Drugs, kidnappings and extortion in the area were once under the control of the Beltran Leyva cartel, but that group’s collapse a few years ago unleashed fierce competition among its progeny and rivals in Morelos and neighboring Guerrero and Mexico states.
In December 2014, a state lawmaker who was a candidate for mayor of Temixco from the same party as Mota, was kidnapped there. Authorities rescued him the following day and blamed the Guerreros Unidos cartel, which has been clashing with a group known as Los Rojos in Guerrero and Morelos.
Temixco also saw one of Mexico’s emblematic killings of the past decade: The 24-year-old son of poet Javier Sicilia and six other people were found slain in March 2011, prompting the writer to start a nationwide movement against violence. Prosecutors said the seven apparently had gotten into an argument with men who turned out to be local members of the Pacifico Sur drug cartel.
Efforts to clean out corrupt local police who have protected gangs led Morelos to put officers under a unified state command in 2014. Temixco joined that system, though the state’s main city, Cuernavaca, has resisted.
One organization representing mayors in the country, the Association of Local Authorities of Mexico, issued a statement saying nearly 100 mayors have been killed across Mexico over the past decade, “principally at the hands of organized crime.”
Mota’s center-left Democratic Revolution Party released a statement describing her as “a strong and brave woman who on taking office as mayor, declared that her fight against crime would be frontal and direct.”
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.