A mayor, his father and 16 others were among the casualties as gunmen opened indiscriminate firing in the southern Mexico state of Guerrero on Wednesday, informed authorities.
State attorney general Sanda Luz Valdovinos was quoted by Milenio television late on Wednesday as saying that 18 people were killed, while two others were wounded in the San Miguel Totolapan town.
The mayor Conrado Mendoza and his father, a former mayor of the town were among the deceased, she said. Images from the scene showed a bullet-riddled city hall.
Later in the same day in the neighbouring state of Morelos, a lawmaker was shot to death in Cuernavaca city, south of Mexico City.
The attacks come at a time when the security strategy of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is under strong criticism and debate. He has placed much of the responsibility on the armed forces rather than civilian police for reigning in high levels of violence in Mexico.
San Miguel Totolapan, a remote township in Tierra Caliente, is one of Mexico’s most conflict-ridden areas and is disputed by multiple drug trafficking gangs.
In 2016, locals of Totolapan, fed up with abductions by the local “Los Tequileros” gang, kidnapped the gang leader’s mother to leverage the release of others.
In Cuernavaca, Morelos State Attorney General Uriel Carmona said two armed men traveling on a motorcycle fatally shot state Deputy Gabriela Marín as she exited a vehicle.
Local outlets reported that Marín, a member of the Morelos Progress party, was killed at a pharmacy in Cuernavaca. A person with Marín was also reportedly wounded in the attack.
Morelos Gov. Cuauhtémoc Blanco condemned the attack and said via Twitter that security forces were deployed in search of the attackers.
According to data from Etellekt Consultores, the deaths of Mendoza and Marín took the number of mayors killed during López Obrador’s administration to 18 and the number of state lawmakers to eight.
Mexico’s Congress this week is debating the president’s proposal to extend the military’s policing duties to 2028. Last month, lawmakers approved López Obrador’s push to transfer the ostensibly civilian National Guard to military control.
