Development: On 2 August the attorney general’s office of the Mexican state of Puebla reported that José Santamaría Zavala, the mayor of the town of Huehuetlán El Grande, had been shot dead that day.
Significance: Santamaría is the third Mexican mayor to be violently killed in the past 10 days. His murder once again highlights the persistent threats and violence to which Mexican mayors are exposed due to the strong presence of criminal and drug trafficking organisations in much of Mexico’s territory. It also once again highlights the federal government’s inability to provide adequate protection for them. In the wake of the murders of two weeks ago the national association of mayors (Anac) called on the government led President Enrique Peña Nieto to establish a new security protocol to better protect mayors across the country. The pressure on the Peña Nieto government to agree and deliver this is now higher following the latest murder.
- According to a report by the Puebla attorney general’s office, Santamaría’s body was found in the early hours of 2 August beside his vehicle parked on the side of a local highway. The report says that Santamaría had been shot multiple times by a 9mm handgun and his body left on the spot. It adds that an (unnamed) individual who was accompanying the mayor said that they were forced to stop after seeing that rocks had been placed in the middle of the highway. As soon as they stopped an undetermined number of armed men pounced on them.
- The Puebla attorney general’s office said that investigators were working on the hypothesis that Santamaría was killed during a robbery attempt although it has not ruled out other hypotheses. However, the authorities said that according to the witness’s account the perpetrators took no money or possessions from the victim. Santamaría had previously been targeted by criminals who broke into his home in September 2015 and beat him up before taking M$1m (US$53,079) in cash.
Looking Ahead: The federal government has not yet reacted to Santamaría’s murder, but with the municipal and state governments where the two mayors killed two weeks ago demanding additional federal security assistance it is under pressure to come up with a general response to the wave of violence. Local security analysts have started to accuse the Peña Nieto government of failing in its efforts to reinforce public security at the municipal level as part of its national security plan.
