Mayor of Municipality in Southern Mexican State Murdered in Her Office

The state attorney general said on Monday there are five lines of investigation into the murder of the municipal president.

State and local Mexican police in Acuna, Mexico, by the Rio Grande border with Texas, prepare to take photos for social media to show the area is safe for tourists during Easter, on April 15, 2022. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

Mayor Lilia Gema García Soto was murdered on Sunday inside the municipal palace of her town, San Mateo Piñas, according to authorities in the southeastern Mexican state of Oaxaca.

The first to announce the murder of García was the governor of Oaxaca, Salomón Jara Cruz, who condemned the attack.

“We strongly condemn the murder of the municipal president of San Mateo Piñas, Lilia Gema García Soto. There can be no impunity for this event,” Jara Cruz said in a message posted on his social media account on June 15.

“We will collaborate with the State Attorney General’s Office to clarify the facts and bring justice. My condolences to her family.”

The Oaxaca State Attorney General’s Office (FGEO) said in a statement that it had launched an investigation to find those responsible for the murder of the “mayor of San Mateo Piña, as well as another male identified as GRG, which occurred in this town located in the coastal region.”

As a result of the ministerial investigations by the Regional Deputy Attorney General’s Office of the Coast, it was determined that on Sunday morning, “a group of armed individuals entered the Municipal Palace of San Mateo Piñas, where they shot the mayor and another person who was at the scene, both of whom died as a result of their injuries,” the FGEO said on June 15.

The Attorney General’s Office detailed that at around 11 a.m., “five people on two motorcycles arrived at the Municipal Palace of San Mateo Piñas, on the coast, and shot the mayor and another person who was with her,” the government agency said in a subsequent statement.

After the attack, the Attorney General’s Office, together with the Ministry of National Defense, the Navy, and the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), deployed a security operation in the area, the FGEO announced.

The federal deputy for the Labor Party, Maribel Martínez Ruiz, who represents Oaxaca, expressed her condolences for the violent act.

“We deeply regret the murder of Lilia Gema García Soto, mayor of San Mateo Piñas. Her life was taken because she dared to exercise the office that was legitimately conferred upon her,” Martínez Ruiz said on social media platform X. “We cannot allow defending our rights to cost us our lives.”

The state attorney general, Bernardo Rodríguez Alamilla, after lamenting the mayor’s death, told a press conference Monday morning that there are five lines of investigation into her murder.

“As prosecutors, we condemn this situation and deeply regret the loss of life of the municipal president and another person who was present inside the palace,” Rodríguez told reporters. “Our solidarity goes out to the family for these events.”

The attorney general added that one of the five possible motives for the attack was a complaint filed by the mayor with the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) for alleged mismanagement of federal government aid that was meant for the damage caused by Hurricane Agatha in late May 2022.

Another motive points to a complaint she filed in 2024 over the alleged theft of 132,000 Mexican pesos (almost $7,000) from the municipality. Another line of investigation is a complaint about the forgery of her signature on documents.

The state attorney general said that other evidence is related to a complaint about timber transit fees in the region. The latest line of investigation by the prosecutor’s office is “the political and social aspect of the municipality,” as Rodríguez said that since the previous administration, a number of groups within the municipality have been fighting for control of it.

The prosecutor added that 60 high-powered gun shells were found at the scene of the crime.