They finally got him. Valentin Lavin, the mayor of Temoac, was found dead inside his own town hall on Wednesday. He survived an armed ambush back in January, but in Morelos, luck has a shelf life. The state prosecutor’s office confirmed forensic teams recovered his body from the local government offices. Now, police are scrambling to find the shooters. Good luck with that.
Temoac sits in Morelos, a blood-soaked state just a stone’s throw from Mexico City where cartels treat local municipalities like personal fiefdoms. Lavin was aligned with President Claudia Sheinbaum’s leftist party. In this line of work, political connections do not buy security. They just make you a bigger target.
Being a Mexican mayor is a death sentence. Since the drug war erupted in 2006, nearly 100 local leaders have been slaughtered. The carnage has not slowed down under the current administration, which took power in October 2024. Fourteen mayors have been murdered since then, including three already in 2026. Remember Carlos Manzo? He was gunned down in Michoacan last November during the Day of the Dead celebrations. The irony is thick enough to choke on.
Cartels rule by the gun. They target local officials to secure territory, and anyone standing in the way is collateral. Just last week, gunmen opened fire on a councilwoman’s family heading to a school graduation. Her husband died on the asphalt. She and her daughter were left wounded.
Meanwhile, the spin doctors are busy. President Sheinbaum boasted on July 14 that homicides have dropped by nearly half since September 2024, credit, she claims, to her security policies. Tell that to the dead. Since the military offensive against the cartels began in 2006, the body count has climbed to nearly 500,000, with another 130,000 people simply vanishing into thin air. The numbers change, but the graves keep filling up.
