A mayor of the Mexican state of Michoacán (west), Yolanda Sánchez Figueroa, was shot dead by a group of hitmen this Monday in the municipality of Cotija, one day after the election that the leftist won Claudia Sheinbaum as president of Mexico. The victim had already been kidnapped in September.
Hitmen surprised Sanchez Figueroa in the main square of Cotija and They fired assault rifles from a moving van. One of the mayor’s bodyguards was injured in the attack.
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The first reports indicated that the mayor He received at least 19 gunshot woundsbut still alive she was transferred to a regional hospital, where she died around 9:30 p.m.
The government secretariat of Michoacán condemned on Network
Yolanda Sánchez Figueroa during the campaign that led her to govern the municipality of Cotija in 2021. (Photo: Facebook/Yolanda Sánchez).
Sánchez became mayor in the 2021 elections with the conservative flag National Action Party (BREAD).
She had been kidnapped for three days by the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel
Sánchez had already been kidnapping victim 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. Three days later the federal government announced that she had been handed over by her captors to agents of the Municipal Police of Villamar, a town in Michoacán adjacent to Cotija.
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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.
“I am a woman of constant struggle, proudly from Cotija, concerned about my city, who knows the needs of my people. They define my preparation and the desire to make Cotija a better place to live,” Yolanda described herself Sánchez Figueroa on his Facebook account.
The murder occurred one day after Sheinbaum, a 61-year-old scientist, achieved an overwhelming victory with more than 30 points of advantage over the opposition Xóchitl Gálvez, of the PAN, and became the first president of Mexico.
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.
