Why being a mayor in Mexico is so dangerous
Local officials have become more powerful, which makes their jobs riskier
ON A sunny day in Oaxaca, the capital of a southern Mexican state with the same name, the mayor of a nearby village was due to meet The Economist to talk about doing the job after his predecessor was murdered. He did not show up. The night before a bullet had smashed a window of his house. “I’m scared,” he said in a message.
Between 2010 and 2017, 42 mayors were murdered in Mexico (see chart), 12 of them in the state of Oaxaca. A further ten mayors or ex-mayors have been killed this year. A mayor is 11 times more likely than an ordinary citizen to be a murder victim, says David Shirk of the University of San Diego in California.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "Open season"
From the May 5th 2018 edition
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