Mexico mayor killed in town hall months after surviving assassination attempt - CBS News

What the report says

CBS News reported that Valentin Lavin, the mayor of Temoac in Mexico’s central Morelos state, was found shot dead inside town hall facilities, according to authorities on Wednesday. The state prosecutor’s office said forensic personnel and police located his body in local government offices and that an operation was underway to find and arrest those responsible.

Lavin was aligned with President Claudia Sheinbaum’s leftist party, CBS reported, citing local media accounts that he had survived an armed attack in January. Temoac is in Morelos, near Mexico City, an area where multiple drug cartels are active.

The killing adds to a long-running pattern of violence against local officials in Mexico. CBS cited official figures showing that nearly 100 mayors have been killed since 2006, when drug-related violence escalated after the government began a major offensive against cartels. Uno TV reported this week that 14 mayors have been killed since the current government took office in October 2024, including three in 2026.

CBS also noted recent attacks involving public officials, including the killing last November of Michoacan Mayor Carlos Manzo during Day of the Dead events, and a shooting last week that killed the husband of a councilwoman and injured her and her daughter. Sheinbaum said on July 14 that homicides had fallen by almost half since September 2024, crediting her administration’s security approach. Government data cited by CBS indicates that nearly 500,000 people have been killed and about 130,000 have disappeared in Mexico since 2006.