The Dangerous Job of Mayor
Violence Against Local Government in Latin America

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An elected mayor is assassinated. A town councilor, threatened by a drug gang, abandons the post mid-term. In Latin America, violence against local elected officials is no longer the exception. According to ACLED, which tracks armed conflict, this region is the second most dangerous place in the world for people working in local government.

What 697 Incidents Mean

ACLED counted 697 violent incidents against local elected officials across Latin America and the Caribbean in 2025. In 79% of those cases the perpetrators were non-state armed groups rather than the state. Drug cartels and gangs combine extortion, intimidation and assassination to bring local administration under their effective control. ACLED points to three major threats: organized crime, civil unrest, and political rivalry — cases where politicians use criminal groups to take down their competitors.

On the Ground in June

The new month brought no pause. In Honduras, killings by organized crime surged from May, and 20 farmers were murdered at a palm plantation near Trujillo in Colon department. The department's death toll for May was its highest since 2018. In Colombia, ahead of the June 21 runoff vote, the risk of election-related violence remained high in areas where armed groups operate, such as Cauca and Guaviare. In the Mexican state of Guerrero, the criminal group Los Ardillos kept up its offensive against Indigenous communities that formed self-defense units to resist. In just nine days, from May 6 to 14, at least 12 people were killed and more than 1,000 were forced to flee their homes.

Why Local, Not National

Mayors and local council members hold the levers that matter on the ground: land-use permits, the line to the police, public works contracts, the gathering of information tied to the drug trade. For organized crime, a local official standing right there is far easier to threaten and control than a national politician in a distant capital. As the wealth and reach of criminal organizations grow, the pressure on these local officials mounts year by year. ACLED's report, alongside the figures of 697 incidents in 2025 and 79% attributable to non-state armed groups, portrays a local administration that remains exposed to three threats: organized crime, civil unrest, and political rivalry.

Beneath the Numbers

Turnout figures and approval ratings are rewritten every year. But when an elected official can no longer handle the everyday work of issuing permits or arranging garbage collection, democracy is being damaged somewhere much deeper than those numbers reach. In places where mayor has become one of the most dangerous jobs, the institution itself is slowly being hollowed out.

Democracy weakens not on election day, but when those who were chosen can no longer carry out the daily work of governing.

※ This article is the author’s commentary based on public information. Please confirm the latest figures, dates and procedures with governments and primary sources. Quotations are kept minimal and sources are cited.