The mayor of Temoac, Morelos, Valentín Lavín Romero, was shot on January 31, 2026, but his condition remains stable. The attack happened as two individuals on a motorcycle intercepted him near a gas station on the Mexico-Oaxaca highway. Lavín was traveling without security escorts accompanied by his wife.
Valentín Lavín Romero, serving his second term as mayor of Temoac in Morelos, was attacked on Saturday, January 31, 2026, while driving a pick-up truck along the Mexico-Oaxaca highway near the town of Amayuca in neighboring Jantetelco municipality. Initial reports indicate he slowed down to enter a nearby gas station when two assailants on a motorcycle caught up and one fired, grazing his hip with a bullet.
Medics treated Lavín at the scene and transported him to a hospital, where the Morelos Prosecutor's Office reported his condition as stable and under constant monitoring. He was traveling without personal security, only with his wife.
Lavín has been accused of ties to criminal groups such as ‘Los Aparicio’ and ‘Los Huazulco’, linked to kidnappings, extortion, drug trafficking, and homicides in eastern Morelos municipalities including Jantetelco, Jonacatepec, Zacualpan de Amilpas, and Cuautla. These allegations stem from arrests involving his family: in September 2025, his mother-in-law, Andrea Angelina ‘N’, known as ‘La Patrona’, was detained along with six others for aggravated express kidnapping. Earlier, in September 2024, while serving as municipal treasurer, she was arrested for drug dealing and illegal firearm possession, according to the High-Impact Crimes Investigation Prosecutor's Office (FIDAI).
His most recent public appearance was at a blockade of the Siglo 21 Highway with parents from Huazulco, demanding the demolition and reconstruction of a primary school damaged in the 2017 earthquake. This incident underscores the ongoing violence in eastern Morelos.
