A former mayor in Mexico has been shot dead inside his town hall, months after surviving an earlier assassination attempt. Valentín Lavín Romero, a member of the Green party, was killed on Wednesday in the municipality of Temoac in Morelos state.
In January, he was wounded when hitmen opened fire at a petrol station. This time, attackers entered the town hall in midday, shot him dead, and escaped on a motorbike. The Morelos prosecutor’s office has promised to investigate all lines of inquiry.
Lavín Romero is the 14th mayor to be murdered since Claudia Sheinbaum became president in October 2024. Almost 100 mayors have been killed since 2006, when the military was deployed to fight organised crime. Municipal governments are the least protected tier of the state, often targeted by criminal groups seeking local control.
Local media reported that Lavín Romero had alleged ties to crime groups. His mother-in-law, a former municipal treasurer, was arrested in September 2025 on suspicion of links to a criminal group and involvement in kidnappings. In March, an activist group demanded investigations into Lavín Romero over the murders of two activists, Samir Flores and Sandra Rosa Camacho Flores. A banner left in May accused him of protecting rival gangs.
The killing comes amid a federal crackdown on municipal corruption networks under Operation Swarm, which has led to 85 arrests in three states, including Morelos. Official data shows the homicide rate has fallen by half over the past year, though analysts caution the true reduction is smaller, and more than 130,000 people remain missing.
