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A politician in Mexico was fatally shot while dining at a restaurant in Jalisco state on Monday, as reported by local authorities.
Jose Luis Pereira, a prominent figure in the Teocaltiche city government, was targeted around 5 p.m. at a seafood establishment, according to information from the local prosecutor’s office.
“Police officers were dispatched to the scene following reports of a firearm injury,” stated the prosecutor’s office in a press release. “Upon their arrival, alongside medical personnel, officers determined that the individual had no vital signs.”
Recent months have witnessed a spike in violence within the city and its surrounding areas. Notably, just days prior, a woman searching for her missing relatives was killed alongside her son in Jalisco.
The municipal police chief in the state was also murdered on April 15.
In March, a lawyer managing a local news Facebook page was assassinated in Guanajuato state, a crime labeled by state prosecutors as one that undermines “freedom of expression.”
Additionally, local reports revealed in February that the remains of four Teocaltiche police officers were discovered in plastic bags along a roadside, following the disappearance of eight officers and a driver en route to Guadalajara.
In response to the kidnappings, state authorities intervened, taking control of the Teocaltiche police department amid claims of gang infiltration within local law enforcement.
Western Mexico is notorious for the activities of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, which was designated as a terrorist organization in February under former U.S. President Donald Trump.
In recent decades, violence associated with drug-trafficking organizations has surged in Mexico, leading to approximately 480,000 homicides over the last 19 years.
Moreover, over 124,000 individuals have been officially reported missing across the nation, with Jalisco accounting for more than 15,000 of those cases.
Assassinations of Politicians in Mexico
Political figures in Mexico have often been the targets of assassination attempts by drug cartels seeking to control local police forces or extort municipal governments.
In December 2024, a congressman affiliated with the ruling coalition was shot dead in Veracruz state.
About two months earlier, a mayor was brutally murdered and decapitated in Guerrero state, leading to the arrest of a former prosecutor and local police official linked to the case.
In June 2024, yet another mayor was killed in southern Mexico, a tragic incident that occurred shortly after another assassination in the same violence-ridden region.
A local councilwoman was also gunned down in Guerrero as she left her residence, just days following the murder of a mayor and her bodyguard outside a gym, shortly after Claudia Sheinbaum’s landmark presidential victory.
In March 2024, a mayor was shot while dining with his 14-year-old son in Morelia, the capital of Michoacán state. Thankfully, his son survived the attack.
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