Yolanda Sanchez the mayor of Cotija town in western Mexico was killed on Monday hours after Claudia Sheinbaum was elected the first female president of Mexico.
The report disclosed added that the mayor’s bodyguard was also killed in the attack.
The Michoacan state government condemned “the murder of the municipal president (mayor) of Cotija, Yolanda Sanchez Figueroa,” the regional interior ministry said in a post on social media.
Sanchez, who was elected mayor in the 2021 elections, was gunned down on a public road, according to local media, with one outlet reporting she was shot 19 times outside of a gym.
According to a statement from the Michoacan attorney general’s office, Sanchez’s bodyguard, identified as Jesús V., was also hit by the gunfire and died.
The office said that they were attacked by gunmen inside a white truck who opened fire “from the moving vehicle and then escaped.”
Authorities have not given details on the murder but said a security operation had been launched to arrest the killers.
