Drug cartel suspected behind murder of mayor

The Mexican drug cartel known as Los Rojos is suspected of being behind the murder of a mayor who was gunned down a day after taking office, authorities said on Monday.

The killing of Gisela Mota, 33, has shocked the nation, putting a spotlight on the violence plaguing the central state of Morelos and the dangers mayors have faced across Mexico.

The left-of-center former member of Congress was shot in her house on Saturday, barely 24 hours after taking her oath of office in Temixco, about 90 kilometers south of Mexico City.

Nearly 100 mayors and more than 1,000 municipal workers have been attacked in Mexico in the past decade, mainly by organized crime groups, according to the Association of Local Authorities of Mexico.

"The lines of investigation indicate that the criminal group Los Rojos was responsible for the murder of Gisela Mota," Governor Graco Ramirez wrote on Twitter.

He told local radio that Mota was killed by a Rojos cell because she was "against letting them having a presence" and she backed the installation of a "unified command" between the state and municipal police in her city of 100,000 people.

Ramirez, who like Mota is a member of the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party, said that Mota's murder was a "clear threat" by the gang for mayors to reject the police reform.

Morelos State Security Commissioner Alberto Capella told Radio Formula that Mota's murder could be linked to the killing of a person whose dismembered body was found on a highway on Dec 31 and to three other cases.

Authorities are seeking to arrest more suspects.