Mexican Mayor Gunned Down

Green Party Mayor Elect Rogelio Sánchez Galán on campaign in the weeks before he was gunned down. (Image: Proceso). — Green Party Mayor Elect Rogelio Sánchez Galán on campaign in the weeks before he was gunned down. (Image: Proc(Rogelio Sánchez Galán, the mayor-elect of the city of Jerécuaro in the central state of Guanajuato, was killed on Tuesday, June 23, 2015. The murder took place at around 8:00pm, near a bus stop. Multiple gunmen, who waited inside two different vehicles, shot Sánchez Galán (and two other men who accompanied him) to death; the victim’s assassins fled the crime scene. In response to the tragic incident, local and state prosecutors launched an investigation. However, at the time of this posting, the murderers of Sánchez Galán remained at large.

6/25/2015 (written by frodriguez) – Running as the candidate of the Mexican Ecológical Green Party (PVEM), Sánchez Galán had been elected mayor less than three weeks before he was killed. His term would have lasted from 2015 to 2018. He had previously served in the same position from 2009 to 2012, but serving as a candidate of the National Action Party (PAN). During his previous tenure as mayor, Sánchez Galán’s director of Public Security, José Antonio García Jiménez, was ambushed and killed in April of 2011.

When he was passed over by his own party as candidate for a federal legislative position, Sánchez Galán joined the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Mexico’s main leftist political party, which postulated him as a candidate for the Mexican Chamber of Deputies in 2012.

The local PRD president, Baltasar Zamudio Cortes, noted that the assassination of Sánchez Galán reflects the social violence and organized crime that predominates in the state of the city of Jerécuaro, the state of Guanajuato. Zamudio Cortes also added: “This [the predominance of social violence by organized crime] is a reality that local authorities refuse to admit. We demand that those responsible for the death of Sánchez Galán be captured and punished”.

Sources:

http://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/2015/matan-a-edil-electo-en-guanajuato-1109570.html

http://www.eltiempo.com/mundo/latinoamerica/mexico-asesinan-a-un-alcalde-electo-de-guanajuato-y-a-sus-dos-asistentes-/15997495

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2015/06/24/Mexican-mayor-gunned-down-at-bus-stop-weeks-after-winning-election/1711435158554

Article written by Fernando Rodriguez-Diaz, for Justice in Mexico Project at University of San Diego.