On 22 July 2026, Valentín Lavín Romero, the mayor of Temoac in the central Mexican state of Morelos, was shot dead inside the municipal palace. The state prosecutor’s office reported that armed attackers on a motorcycle entered the building around 12:32 p.m. and opened fire. Lavín, a member of the Green Party (PVEM) allied with President Claudia Sheinbaum’s leftist coalition, had already survived an assassination attempt in January, when gunmen shot him on a highway.

The Morelos attorney general confirmed the death and said an operation was under way to locate those responsible. No group has claimed the attack, but Morelos is a region where several drug cartels operate, and local officials are frequently targeted. Lavín’s political affiliation placed him within the ruling coalition, though the motive remains under investigation.

The killing is the latest in a long series of attacks on Mexican mayors. Official figures cited by authorities indicate that almost 100 mayors have been murdered since 2006, when drug-related violence surged. Since the current federal administration took office in October 2024, 14 mayors have been killed, three of them in 2026. Lavín himself had faced repeated violence: in 2018, as mayor-elect, three of his family members were murdered, and in March 2026, businesses reportedly owned by him were attacked.

The same day, in the southern state of Oaxaca, journalist Francisco Alejandro Leyva Aguilar was shot dead while eating at a restaurant, becoming the seventh journalist killed in Mexico this year according to Reporters Without Borders. The Morelos state government condemned the mayor’s murder and pledged to work with federal authorities. As of now, no arrests have been made, and the investigation continues.