Former Oaxaca Municipal President Shot Dead; Fourth Ex-Mayor Killed in 2026

Pedro Martínez Barroso, the former municipal president of San Juan Cacahuatepec in Oaxaca, was gunned down inside a hardware store in the town center. The killing adds to a grim tally of violence against local officials in the region.

Martínez Barroso, an engineer who served as municipal president from 2022 to 2024 under a PAN-PRI-PRD coalition, was attacked by armed assailants. His death brings the number of assassinated former municipal presidents in Oaxaca to four in 2026 alone. The violence has also claimed the lives of a current municipal president, a former councilor, a mayor, and an assembly member this year.

The Party Green Ecologist of Mexico-Oaxaca condemned the assassination and urged authorities to conduct a comprehensive investigation. "We demand that this act be investigated to the fullest extent of the law," the party stated.

This murder follows closely on the heels of other recent killings of local officials. Guadalupe Urban Caballos, a councilor in Cacahuatepec, was assassinated nine months prior. In July, the municipal president of San Miguel Yogovana and the municipal president of San Miguel Amatitlán were also killed. In June, a former municipal president of San Juan Quiahije and his son were killed, and in March and April, two more former municipal presidents, Silvestre Vásquez Sánchez and Francisco Gijón Vázquez, were also murdered.

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We demand that this act be investigated to the fullest extent of the law.