UPDATE Jan. 3, 5:46 P.M.:
The hit men who assassinated Gisela Mota a day after her inauguration as mayor of Temixco have been identified as having connections to other gang-related violence throughout the region.
Two suspects were killed in the police chase after the shooting, while three other suspects, including one minor, were arrested. It is now believed that the Los Rojos cartel is responsible for the crime, and one of the detained suspects told Mexican authorities that the hitmen were paid $30,000 to kill Mota, TeleSUR noted.
Read also: Joaquin Guzman ("El Chapo")
Prosecutors are expected to release further information during the week, according to TeleSUR.
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Gisela Mota, the new mayor of Temixco in Mexico's eastern state of Morelos, was shot and killed after four gunmen invaded her house Saturday morning, hardly 24 hours after taking office.
The news was confirmed by Morelos state governor Graco Ramírez in a tweet this morning. "I have been informed of the attack on the mayor of Temixco, Gisela Mota, young and dear colleague," Ramírez wrote. "This is a challenge of delinquency. We will not yield."
The attackers fled the scene of the crime in a van, according to TeleSUR. Two of the assailants were killed in the subsequent police chase, and the other two have been arrested, according to local reports.
A former member of federal Congress, Mota, 33, belonged to the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party (PRD). The motive for the attack remains unclear, The Wall Street Journal noted. However, a number of mayors were murdered in Mexico in the past year, and the deaths were connected to the armed gangs that often wield power in local communities, Newsweek reported.
Temixco is located 55 miles from the capital of Mexico City, with a population of 100,000. Mota had vowed to address and clean up the municipality's drug trade-related problems as part of her campaign, according to AFP.
