Mexican mayor assassinated; 3rd local leader killed in June

Martha Laura Mendoza Mendoza, mayor of Tepalcatepec in the state of Michoacán, was arriving at her home with her family around 11 a.m. local time on Tuesday when a group of armed men opened fire, according to local reports. Both the mayor and her husband were killed. Their son, whose age has not been confirmed, was seriously injured and transported to a hospital.

The regional prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation and classified the mayor’s killing as a “femicide,” according to an official statement.

Mendoza Mendoza was a member of Morena, Mexico’s ruling party, and was serving her second term after winning the 2021 municipal election by a single vote.

According to Mexican media, the mayor was the sister-in-law of Juan José Farías, known as “El Abuelo,” an alleged cartel leader who previously had ties to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) before forming his own group, the Cartel de Tepalcatepec. The cartel, based in the same municipality where the attack occurred, is part of the broader “Cárteles Unidos” alliance, which has been engaged in a violent conflict with the CJNG. Michoacán is a key front in that war and a major production hub for methamphetamine, fentanyl, and other synthetic drugs.

Mendoza Mendoza is the second mayor killed in Michoacán this month, following the murder of Salvador Bastida García, mayor of Tacámbaro. The region also saw an unprecedented drone attack on the Benito Juárez city hall last week—reportedly the first bombing of its kind on a municipal building in Mexico.

Her death also follows the assassination of Lilia Gemma García Soto, mayor of San Mateo Piñas in Oaxaca, on Sunday. Mendoza Mendoza is the fifth mayor killed in Mexico so far this year, and the eighth since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office in October 2024.