Mexican mayor gunned down hours after being sworn in
The mayor of a town in Mexico’s southern Oaxaca state was slain just hours after being sworn into office on Tuesday.
Gov. Alejandro Murat confirmed the killing of Tlaxiaco Mayor Alejandro Aparicio Santiago via his Twitter account. He promised a thorough investigation and said a suspect was already in custody.
The state prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Aparicio had just been sworn in and was headed to a meeting at city hall when an unknown number of gunmen opened fire at him. He was taken to a hospital, but died there later. A second man injured in the attack, town official Perfecto Hernandez Gutierrez, died Wednesday morning, according to the prosecutor’s office and a political group.
Aparicio and Hernandez were both part of the leftist political bloc National Regeneration Movement, known as Morena, of Mexico’s new president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Morena posted news of Hernandez’s death on Twitter, and the state prosecutor’s office confirmed his death in a statement using his title and initials. Two others were injured, the statement said.
Tlaxiaco is the hometown of Yalitza Aparicio, star of the film “Roma.” It was not immediately known if she was related to the slain mayor.
Times staff writer Rebecca Bryant contributed to this report.
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