A local Mexican politician got shot and killed on Monday while chowing down at a restaurant in western Mexico’s troubled Jalisco state, authorities spilled the beans. Jose Luis Pereira, a big shot in the Teocaltiche city government, got attacked at around 5 p.m. at a seafood joint, according to the local prosecutor’s office. “Cops rushed to the scene after getting a report of someone getting shot,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “When they got there, alongside medical staff, officers confirmed that the victim was no longer kicking.” The city and the surrounding region have been dealing with violent episodes lately. Just a few days back, a mom looking for missing relatives got murdered along with her son in Jalisco. The state’s police chief was taken out on April 15.
In March, a lawyer who ran a local news Facebook page got taken out in the neighboring Guanajuato state in what state prosecutors called a crime “against freedom of expression.” Local news also mentioned in February that the remains of four Teocaltiche police officers were found in plastic bags on the side of a road, after eight officers disappeared along with a driver who was taking them to nearby Guadalajara.
After the abductions, the state government took control of the Teocaltiche police, accusing local law enforcement of being infiltrated by gangs. Western Mexico is home to the Jalisco New Generation cartel, which was labeled a terrorist organization by U.S. President Donald Trump in February. Violence linked to drug trafficking groups has shot up in Mexico in recent decades, with about 480,000 people murdered in the past 19 years. More than 124,000 people have been officially reported missing in Mexico, with Jalisco leading the national statistics with over 15,000 cases.
Mexico’s drug cartels have often aimed assassination attempts at politicians and mayoral candidates, trying to control local police or extort money from municipal governments. In December 2024, a Mexican congressman who was part of the ruling coalition got shot dead in Veracruz state. About two months before that, a mayor was murdered and decapitated in the southern state of Guerrero. The next month, a former prosecutor and local police official got arrested in connection with the gruesome killing. In June 2024, a mayor got taken out in southern Mexico, less than a week after another politician was assassinated in the same region plagued by cartel violence. That same month, a local councilwoman got gunned down as she left her home in Guerrero. Her murder came a few days after the mayor of a town in western Mexico and her bodyguard were killed outside of a gym, just hours after Claudia Sheinbaum’s historic presidential win. In March 2024, a mayor was shot dead while having a meal with his 14-year-old son in Morelia, the capital of western Michoacan state. His son survived.
