Gisela Mota, Mayor of Temixco, was assassinated less than one day after taking office. Officials said that gunmen opened fire on Mayor Mota’s house in the city of Temixco. Two presumed assailants were killed and three others were detained. The suspects also fired on federal police and soldiers responding to the crime from a vehicle. Temixco, located in the Morelos state, is a city of nearly 100,000 people 52 miles south of Mexico City and is located in disputed drug cartel territory.
Mayor Mota, a former federal congresswoman, was described as “a strong and brave woman” whose fight against crime was “frontal and direct,” by her leftist Democratic Revolution Party. She had promised in her campaign to begin efforts to clean up the city of Temixco, which has long been plagued by problems associated with drugs and organized crime. Mota had consistently promised her constituents that she would address issues of violence and corruption within the city.
The Morelos state government issued a statement condemning the attack as “a challenge that organized crime launched against the constitutional and democratic order.” The government has since sworn that justice would be delivered without impunity, and would not cede to the challenges presented by organized crime.
Mota’s death is not an isolated tragedy. Political assassinations have become tragically commonplace, and several mayors were killed last year in Mexico. Many local communities are controlled by armed gangs financed by drug cartels.
Last year, mayoral candidate Aidé Nava González was found on the outskirts of the town she had hoped to represent, decapitated with a message from the cartels written on a sheet covering her body. In June, the mayor-elect of Jerecuaro was killed in the state of Guanajuato. Since the beginning of a military-led offensive by the Mexican government in 2006, drug trafficking organizations have slaughtered their rivals, killed policemen, teachers, students, journalists, and political leaders—especially local leaders.
Since mayors usually appoint local police chiefs, cartels often eliminate or intimidate any candidate other than their own. The assassinations of local-level politicians serve to weaken fundamental government structures. They also serve to intimidate strong potential mayoral candidates from running in the future, for fear of risking their lives.
On Twitter, Morelos Governor Graco Ramirez blamed Mota’s murder on organized crime, initially failing to cite a particular cartel or gang. Since then, Ramirez has blamed the murder on the Rojos gang, which has been fighting a bloody turf war with the Guerreros Unidos gang.
Local politicians and mayors are often targeted by cartels seeking control of communities and towns. In a news conference on Jan. 3, 2016, Ramirez said that the killing was a warning to local officials. The Government of Mexico is hoping to install a new system of unified state control of police, aimed at combatting corruption in local police forces. Mota had been in favour of the new system of state police control. Ramirez said that the state police plan has led to a decrease in the wave of kidnappings, extortions, and drug gang killings.
Mota was a Veracruz native and the first female mayor of Temixco.