Mexico mayor killed one day after taking office

Cuernavaca (Mexico): Several gunmen burst into the home of a newly elected Mexican mayor and shot her dead, just hours into her tenure, police have said.

Gisela Mota, 33, a left-of-center former member of Congress, was gunned down barely 24 hours after taking her oath of office on Friday in the city of Temixco, which is about 90 kilometres from the capital Mexico City.

Temixco is plagued by organised crime and rampant drug trafficking – problems the slain mayor had vowed to help clean up.

Graco Ramirez, the governor of the central state of Morelos, yesterday said that the suspected gunmen had been arrested following the killing and pledged there would be “no impunity.”

Morelos has been one of the Mexican states most affected by drug violence plaguing the country, including kidnappings and murders.

More than 100,000 people have been killed or gone missing in a nearly a decade of drug violence nationwide.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office in December 2012, has pledged to reduce the murders, kidnappings and extortion haunting Mexicans.

PTI