Mexico records 14 mayors killed under Claudia Sheinbaum

Valentín Lavín Romero was shot dead inside the town hall in Temoac, in the Mexican state of Morelos, on Wednesday, according to El País. His killing is the latest in a running tally that has reached 14 mayors killed since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office.

The list spans multiple states and methods: a mayor in Chilpancingo, Guerrero was beheaded days after taking office in October 2024; several others were shot in their municipalities in Oaxaca and Michoacán. El País reports that Oaxaca has recorded five killings of sitting mayors over the past 18 months, the highest among Mexican states, while Michoacán has recorded four. The pattern is not confined to one cartel or one corridor: the article links one high-profile case in Michoacán—the murder of Uruapan mayor Carlos Manzo in November 2025—to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, after which the federal government deployed additional security forces to the state.

The deaths are also a measure of how much municipal government is worth to criminal groups. Local administrations control permits, policing interfaces, markets, and the paperwork that lets a business operate—or be shut down. When a mayor is murdered in the building where residents file complaints and pay fees, it signals that the leverage is not only territorial but administrative. Víctor Sánchez, a scholar at the Autonomous University of Coahuila, tells El País the trend points to growing capture of municipal governments by criminal organizations, a dynamic that turns elections into a fight over revenue streams and protection arrangements rather than public services.

The numbers make the political horizon clear. Sheinbaum has been in office for one year and nine months, with four years remaining, and the current toll is already approaching the total recorded under Andrés Manuel López Obrador over an entire six-year term, El País notes. The historical comparison is grim: the deadliest presidential term on record for mayors was under Enrique Peña Nieto, with 42 mayors killed, while Felipe Calderón’s administration saw 37. In that context, municipal security becomes a recurring emergency response—troop deployments after headline murders—rather than a durable change in who can coerce local officials and who pays the cost.

Lavín Romero had survived a similar attack in January, when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle along the Mexico–Oaxaca highway, and he later took a leave of absence. He was killed anyway, this time at his desk in town hall.