An armed commando assassinates the mayor of Jamapa, Florisel Ríos in Veracruz

The mayor of Jamapa, Florisel Ríos.THE PAIS

Florisel Ríos, the mayor of Jamapa, a small municipality near the coast of the Mexican state of Veracruz, was assassinated this Wednesday by an armed commando, as confirmed by the national leader of the PRD, Jesús Zambrano.

The first reports suggest that the municipal president, also a member of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, was kidnapped this morning.

His body appeared shortly after in the community of Ixcoalco, a few minutes from Jamapa.

The Ministry of Public Security of Veracruz has announced an "intense operation" in Jamapa and its surroundings.

“The state police are in the area carrying out surveillance work by air and land.

The agents have installed screening filters at various highway points, as well as at the municipal seat, ”the statement describes.

“It is a criminal act, we demand that it be clarified and investigated to its last consequences.

I directly hold Governor Cuitláhuac García and his Secretary General of the Government Eric Cisneros responsible, and I firmly demand that the federal government take action on the matter, that this environment of violence does not overlap, ”the PRD leader wrote.

The president has identified Florisel Ríos as one of the mayors who denounced harassment and persecution by the State Government.

The leader of the PRD in Veracruz, Sergio Cadena, stated this morning that the party had already presented complaints of the persecution and political violence suffered by Ríos.

I condemn with indignation the brutal murder of our Municipal President of #Jamapa, #Veracruz, Florisel Ríos Delfín, this morning.

This is how the Government of Cuitláhuac García Jiménez responds to the complaints of official repression against them #NiUnaMenos @PRDMexico

- Jesús Zambrano (@Jesus_ZambranoG) November 11, 2020

The state governor, in a video message this morning, announced that "justice will be done, whoever falls."

"We have asked the State Attorney General's Office to speed up the investigations to find those responsible," he said.

García recalled the case of the Morenista mayor of Mixtla de Altamirano, Marciela Vallejo, who was murdered along with her husband and his driver in April last year when they were traveling in a van.

“The current prosecutor was the one who determined through expert investigations who were responsible, material and intellectual, and now they are in jail.

That is why we trust the actions of the Prosecutor's Office, "said the president, who added:" There will be no impunity here. "

Just a week ago, two officials from the Jamapa City Council, the treasurer and the director of Public Works, were arrested for a corruption investigation.

In addition, Fernando Hernández, director of the DIF and husband of the murdered mayor, has been a fugitive from justice for seven days, after fleeing when he was being investigated by the State Prosecutor's Office for embezzlement.

The governor of Veracruz has insisted that this criminal process against municipal officials will not interfere in the investigation of the murder of Florisel Ríos: “We are not going to allow anyone to be above the investigations, that no one is trying to take advantage of a complex situation ”.

It is not the first event that has occurred this year in this small town of Veracruz.

In July, the municipal police commander, Miguel de Jesús Castillo Hernández, was assassinated.

His body was found dismembered in garbage bags, just after a video of the agent appeared naked, bound and blindfolded.

In the recording, Castillo accused Florisel Ríos of ordering arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial executions of people "uncomfortable" for the municipal government.

In addition to linking her to organized crime.

The mayor denied the accusations and said she was at the disposal of the Prosecutor's Office.