A Mayor Was Just Shot Dead in Mexico on the Day After She Took Office

The mayor of a city in the central Mexican state of Morelos was shot dead the day after she took office.

Gunmen killed Gisela Mota Ocampo at her house in the city of Temixco on Saturday morning, authorities said. She had been sworn in as mayor of the city on New Year's Day.

Morelos Governor Graco Ramírez attributed the attack to organized crime.

"This is a challenge by organized crime against the constitutional and democratic order," Ramírez said on Sunday morning. "Gisela Raquel Mota Ocampo was an honest and committed public servant."

Dozens of mayors and other elected officials — who often have little personal security — have been killed in drug war violence across Mexico that has left well over 100,000 people dead in the past decade.

Morelos has suffered from several waves of extreme violence during that time, though in recent months this has eased off somewhat.

The city of Temixco is home to about 100,000 people and lies just south of Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos, towards the border with the particularly violent state of Guerrero. The Associated Press reported that the city also houses the headquarters of several state institutions, including the body that coordinates state and local police forces.

At a press conference on Saturday Morelos authorities said that the attack on Mota prompted an immediate search operation and a shootout with gunmen in a car in which two alleged criminals died.

State Prosecutor Javier Pérez Durón said this incident led to the seizure of another car which contained a 9 mm pistol and a machine pistol, as well as the arrest of a minor, an 18-year-old man, and a 32-year-old woman.

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