The mayor of a city in western Mexico was killed on Monday, just hours after the country elected its first female president in a race marred by deadly attacks on candidates.
Sánchez Figueroa and her bodyguard died in hospital a few hours after the attack. It is added that an investigation has been launched. Sánchez was shot in the city of Cotija, which she ruled from September 2021.
Confirmation of Sánchez Figueroa’s death came hours after Claudia Sheinbaum won a landslide victory to become Mexico’s first female president, marking an achievement in a country known for its patriarchal culture and rampant femicide.
Widespread violence against politicians emerged in the election, the bloodiest in Mexican history. Dozens of political candidates were killed by criminal organizations during the campaign in an attempt to influence the vote.
Sheinbaum will take office on October 1, replacing outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a longtime ally whose social welfare programs have lifted many Mexicans out of poverty, making their leftist Moreno party the favorite in the polls.
But she inherited an epidemic of gang-led violence and unsolved disappearances in the country and faces an urgent task to strengthen domestic and border security.
Mexico’s homicide rate is among the highest in the world and remains a dangerous place for women, with figures showing around 10 women are murdered every day. More than 100,000 people are still missing in the country, with no explanation of their fate. According to the research center Mexico Evalua, about 95 percent of all crimes nationwide remain unsolved in 2022.
Sánchez Figueroa was previously kidnapped in September 2023 in the city of Zapopan and released three days later. Three men were arrested and charged with her abduction.
Local authorities, including the government of Michoacán, condemned the deadly attack on the mayor and her bodyguard.
“A security operation coordinated with federal agencies has been deployed to find those responsible for the incident,” the state Department of Public Safety said, Klix.ba reports.
