A crime organization in Mexico is claiming responsibility for the murder of the newly sworn-in mayor of Xoxocotla, according to the Daily Mail. Mayor Benjamin Lopez Palacios was shot and killed at his home in Xoxocotla, a municipality located in the south-central state of Morelos. Palacios was sworn into office just 10 days before his assassination, which an unidentified organized crime group in Mexico claimed responsibility for.
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The organization placed a propaganda banner across a cemetery where they warned governor Cuauhtémoc Blanco of plans to assassinate other mayors in the state. The organization claimed that the mayor had alleged ties to other criminal groups.
“There goes the first one Cuauhtémoc Blanco, don’t send me to talk to fools. Keep playing around and you’re going to run out of mayors, I f******* warned you f*****, here’s the first one,'” the banner read in Spanish. “‘And if you want to know more about who organized the meeting, ask the former treasurer (Alejandro) Villareal, he will be able to give you more exact data, another piece of information, investigate the death of Ray (former Jalisco New Generation cell leader Raymundo Castro), who was interested in him dying in prison(?) Greetings, Cuauhtémoc.’
Blanco responded to the banner, claiming that it made it “laugh” and described it as a component in a “dirty war” of politics being played.
Police said that Palacios was approached by three men who visited his home to ask him for help on a project before firing shots and leaving the scene. Palacious was pronounced dead upon the arrival of paramedics.