Melquiades Alarcon Caro, former mayor of the municipality of Las Minas, Veracruz, and his son were killed in an armed attack while driving on the Zomelahuacan–Pueblo Nuevo highway, approximately 50 kilometers from the state capital.

According to official reports and testimonies from residents, around 8:00 a.m. a group of heavily armed men intercepted the victims' vehicle and fired multiple shots. Security elements that responded to the scene located the vehicle with at least 40 bullet impacts and the lifeless bodies of both occupants.

Following the citizen report, elements of the Secretariat of Public Security, the Ministerial Police and personnel from the Forensic Services of the State Attorney General's Office (FGE) implemented an operation, secured the area and carried out the removal of the bodies for identification and legal procedures.

Political violence on the rise in Veracruz

This double homicide raises to 12 the number of murders of political actors and former officials in Veracruz during 2025, consolidating the entity as the one with the highest political violence in the country, according to data from Integralia Consultants.

The report of the consulting firm specifies that, only in the first half of the year, 81 attacks against political figures were identified in the state, including 16 homicides, in addition to attacks with firearms, threats, Kidnappings and disappearances.

The crime against Alarcon Caro is part of a recent wave of violence that includes the kidnapping and murder of retired teacher Irma Hernandez, allegedly for refusing to pay a fee to organized crime, and the discovery of three dismembered bodies in early August with a message from the criminal group "Grupo Sombra."