An area Mexican politician was shot and killed on Monday whereas eating at a restaurant in western Mexico’s troubled Jalisco state, authorities mentioned.
Jose Luis Pereira, a senior member of the Teocaltiche metropolis authorities, was attacked at round 5:00 pm at a seafood restaurant, in accordance with the native prosecutor’s workplace.
“Police officers responded to the scene after receiving a report of a person injured by a firearm,” the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned in an announcement. “Upon arrival, along with medical personnel, officers confirmed that the victim no longer had vital signs.”
The town and its surrounding area have seen bouts of violence in current months. Simply days in the past, a mom trying to find lacking family members was murdered alongside together with her son in Jalisco.
The state’s municipal police chief was murdered on April 15.
Native media additionally reported in February that the stays of 4 Teocaltiche law enforcement officials have been present in plastic baggage alongside the facet of a highway, after eight officers disappeared together with a driver taking them to close by Guadalajara.
A Jalisco State Police officer on a pickup truck patrols as a part of a everlasting operation within the municipality of Teocaltiche, the place eight policemen and a driver have been kidnapped within the city of Teocaltiche, Jalisco State, Mexico on February 24, 2025. The dismembered stays of 4 law enforcement officials reported lacking have been later acknowledged by family members, authorities mentioned.
ULISES RUIZ/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
After the kidnappings, the state authorities took management of the Teocaltiche police, accusing native regulation enforcement of being infiltrated by gangs.
Western Mexico is residence to the Jalisco New Technology cartel, which was designated a terrorist group by U.S. President Donald Trump in February.
Violence linked to drug trafficking teams has skyrocketed in Mexico in current many years, with round 480,000 folks murdered prior to now 19 years.
Greater than 124,000 folks have been formally registered as lacking in Mexico, and Jalisco leads the nationwide statistics with greater than 15,000 instances.
Politicians focused with violence in Mexico
Mexico’s drug cartels have usually targeted assassination makes an attempt on politicians and mayoral candidates, in a bid to manage native police or extort cash from municipal governments.
In December 2024, a Mexican congressman who was a member of the ruling coalition was shot useless in Veracruz state.
About two months earlier than that, a mayor was murdered and decapitated within the southern state of Guerrero. The following month, a former prosecutor and native police official was arrested in reference to the grisly killing.
In June 2024, a mayor was killed in southern Mexico, lower than per week after one other politician was assassinated in the identical area tormented by cartel violence.
That very same month, a neighborhood councilwoman was gunned down as she was leaving her residence in Guerrero. Her homicide got here a number of days after the mayor of a city in western Mexico and her bodyguard have been killed exterior of a health club, simply hours after Sheinbaum gained the presidency.
In March 2024, a mayor was shot useless whereas at a restaurant along with his 14-year-old son in Morelia, the capital of western Michoacan state. His son survived.
