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MEXICO CITY.- A mayor of the Mexican state of Michoacán, who had been kidnapped last September, and her bodyguard were murdered this Monday night, one day after the election of the leftist Claudia Sheinbaum as president of Mexico, the regional government reported.
The government secretariat of that state condemned on the social network “the murder of the municipal president of Cotija, Yolanda Sánchez Figueroa”, adding that it deployed a security operation to capture those responsible.
According to the first information, Sánchez was the victim of an armed attack.
“A security operation coordinated with federal agencies was initiated to identify those responsible for the episode,” said the public security secretary of the state of Michoacán.
According to local media, Sánchez Figueroa was shot at by an armed group when she was leaving a gym in the city center, accompanied by one of her escorts. Both were seriously injured and later died while being treated by doctors.
According to the newspaper La Jornada, the criminals They shot the mayor with assault rifles from a moving van in which they managed to escape. Sánchez Figueroa received at least 19 bullet holes.
“What a serious situation we are experiencing in our country! The worst thing is that it seems that a majority of the country does not care. Just one day after the PAN endorsed the mayorship of Cotija, our municipal president, Yolanda Sánchez, was murdered in the street,” said the national leader of the National Action Party (PAN) Marko Cortés.
Sánchez became mayor in the 2021 elections under the banner of the conservative PAN. Lawyer and legal consultant in civil law, with experience in the agricultural sector, Sánchez was the first woman to assume the municipal presidency of Cotija.
After taking office on September 1, 2021, she expressed her joy at being the first mayor of the municipality, which she described as “land of saints, cradle of globetrotters, of people of work, struggle and good will.”
Sánchez already had been the victim of a kidnapping on September 23, 2023 in a suburb of Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco, neighboring Michoacán, when he was leaving a shopping center in the company of two women. Sánchez was released three days later and her kidnapping led to the arrest of three men.
According to local media reports, the kidnappers belonged to the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), who would have threatened the mayor for opposing the criminal group taking control of the police in her municipality.
The murder occurred one day after Sheinbaum, a 61-year-old scientist, achieved an overwhelming victory with more than 30 points ahead of the opposition Xóchitl Gálvez, of the PAN, after the most violent campaign in the history of Mexico, in which 38 candidates for different positions.
Michoacán, a state recognized for its tourist destinations and a thriving agro-export industry, is also one of the most violent in the country, due to the activity of criminal groups dedicated to extortion and drug trafficking.
Agencies AFP and ANSA
THE NATION
