Mexican Governor Takes Over Local Police After Mayor Was Shot Dead

Graco Ramirez, the governor of Mexico's Morelos state, has taken over the command of the police service in 15 towns and cities after the newly elected mayor, Gisele Mota, was murdered on Saturday, as reported by BBC.

Ramirez said, "The government will not be intimidated by organised crime."

He went on to say that her murder "is a message and a clear threat for the mayors who recently took office to not accept the police coordination scheme that we have supported and that is being built at a national level."

Mota, a former congresswoman, was shot dead in her own home less than 24 hours after taking office as mayor in the town of Temixco. Police were able to arrest two of her attackers, and shot another two.

The attack on the new mayor was not the first, however. Several mayors were already killed in past years by alleged drug traffickers, costing thousands of lives in the last decade or so.

Mota's attack may be more in line with Mexico's "single command" scheme, where she was one of the many politicians backing the governor's proposals to remove powers from the local police. Her town, which was located only about 52 miles south of Mexico City, is among those included in the said scheme.

Many other politicians opposed the scheme, with about half the state's mayors refusing to sign, opting for their local police forces to have full control. Among the said politicians is former football star and current Cuernavaca Mayor Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who decided to suspend the scheme, saying that crime in Mexico has risen despite its existence, proposing instead to beef up the police force.

The police itself may have become the problem, however, as local police forces are said to be often infiltrated by these said gangs. Drug trafficking and extortion gangs are aplenty in Morelos, and rival cartels often fight with each other. The involvement of police officers in gangs has been the reason for the "single command" scheme.

Yahoo! noted that Mota, before her murder, had vowed to clean up crimes in the city, as she agreed to the proposed scheme. She was also part of the Democratic Revolution Party, along with Ramirez, who hailed her as a "strong and brave woman, who, when she took office as mayor, declared that her battle against organized crime would be frontal and direct."

Ramirez has also declared three days of mourning in Morelos and ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in the wake of Mota's death.