The mayor-elect of a small municipality near the crime-plagued Mexican resort city of Acapulco was assassinated early Monday, local prosecutors said — the latest in a series of attacks targeting politicians.
Salvador Villalba Flores — who was to take office in October in Copala, a town of about 4,000 residents about 80 miles southeast of Acapulco — was shot dead while traveling on a highway, prosecutors in Guerrero state said in a statement.
Prosecutors said that they had launched an investigation into the murder, but declined to provide further details.
Local newspaper El Sur de Guerrero reported that Villalba was a retired Navy captain who was usually protected by National Guard escorts, but was traveling alone to Mexico City when he was killed.
“The mayor-elect was taken off the bus he was traveling on when it stopped near San Pedro las Playas” and shot, the outlet reported.