Mayor's Brother Killed Outside a Grocery Store in Chiapas

"MX" for Borderland Beat

Lucio Flores Gómez, brother of the mayor of Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán, Chiapas, José Luis Flores Gómez, was shot to death on Thursday.

The events occurred on the afternoon of April 8, when the brother of the mayor of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party was killed by armed individuals in the vicinity of a grocery store located in the central part of the city.

According to witnesses, the subjects fired at Lucio Flores, 50, several times. He was accompanied by several people who were also attacked. The victims were taken to the Pueblo Nuevo Community Hospital, where several hours later the death of the mayor's brother was confirmed.

Policemen and prosecutors from the Public Ministry Department arrived at the scene to initiate an investigation. Subsequently, elements of the National Guard, as well as units of the State Preventive and Municipal Police, implemented an operation to search for those responsible.

So far there is no report of people detained for these events.

It should be noted that according to residents, the attack is related to the dispute between leaders of political parties in the town.

Background

On January 21 in the same municipality, two paramilitary groups, "Los Diablos" and "Los Marianos", fought each other for a gold statuette in the shape of a donkey, a symbol for luck for some members of that indigenous community. The shooting left four people dead and five injured in the state of Chiapas.

The events were reported at Aurora Ermita, a rural community in Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacan, Chiapas. This community is predominantly Tzotzil, an indigenous Maya people of the central Chiapas highlands in southern Mexico.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, the shooting began when members of “Los Diablos” tried to snatch the golden donkey figure from the hands of one of the leaders of “Los Marianos”.

Local media reports indicate that the confronted groups were led by Enoc Díaz, leader of the Revolutionary Movement Number Seven, and José Luis Flores Gomez, the mayor of the town.

According to local residents, since 2015 armed groups have installed checkpoints throughout the region. They reportedly extort people and terrorize them during electoral season.

Sources: Noticias en la Mira; Heraldo de Mexico; Infobae