With just 11 days in office, the mayor from the municipality of Xoxocotla, Benjamín López Palacios, was murdered in his home, as reported by the Morelos state prosecutor’s office. So far this year 31 people have been victims of homicide in Morelos according to data from the Secretary of Security.
The first versions of the Mexican prosecutor’s office indicate that around three in the afternoon an armed attack was reported at a home in the municipality of Xoxocotla. According to the police report, Lopez Palacios he was killed by four shots to the head. The newspaper The Day a slogan that neighbors assured that seven men arrived at the mayor’s house and murdered him.
For his part, the current governor of Morelos and former Mexican soccer player, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, lamented the murder of Mayor Benjamín López. “I condemn this heinous crime, we will go to the lengths to bring those responsible to justice,” he wrote on his Twitter account.
While, the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, spoke at the morning press conference to replace the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is recovering from coronavirus. “We are going to talk with the governor (Cuauhtémoc Blanco) how the situation is, and if it is necessary to reinforce with the presence of the National Guard” noted quoted by The Day.
The daily reports of the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection record that In the first 11 days of the year, 31 people were victims of homicide in the state of Morelos, including the mayor of Xoxocotla. As indicated by the morning The reasonDuring Blanco’s administration, from October 2018 to November 2021, 4,115 people were murdered in Morelos.
The consulting firm Etellekt indicated that during the administrations of Presidents Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) and Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), 31 and 39 mayors were murdered, respectively. While 14 mayors were victims of homicide during the administration of the current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-). According to the consultancy, the murder of Benjamin Lopez is the first fatal attack against an indigenous mayor during the current government.
Benjamin was the brother of Juan José López Palacios, an elected mayor who died of a heart attack in June 2021 after winning the election. According to the newspaper The country, Juan José López’s alternate, Martín Flores, aspired to succeed him and fulfill the mandate of the recently deceased, however, his brother, Benjamín López asked that elections be called under a new system: an assembly in the municipality that was held carried out in October and in which López Palacios won. Although the election was contested by Flores, last December the victory of López Palacios was ratified by the resolution of the State Electoral Court and by the communal assembly of the town.
One day after the López Palacios crime, Xoxocotla woke up with posters “with messages attributed to organized crime,” the portal said. Meter from Mexico. “There goes the first Cuauhtémoc Blanco, don’t send me to talk to assholes, keep sending and you’re going to be left without mayors,” read the message which also referred to a meeting between Blanco and criminal leaders from Morelos to late 2018 and whose photograph came to light last week.
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