Gabriel Rivas Ríos, a councilman for the Morena party on the Cuernavaca City Council, was executed this Wednesday afternoon during an armed attack in the community of Acapantzingo, located within the municipality of Cuernavaca, Morelos.
The attack took place around 4:00 p.m. as the municipal official was driving his private blue vehicle, accompanied by his wife. Rivas Ríos was heading to the offices of the Gustavo Salgado Delgado Civic Association after finishing his duties at the city’s municipal headquarters when two hitmen on a motorcycle approached and fired directly at his head.
Throughout his career, Gabriel Rivas Ríos was known for leading social movements in the state of Morelos.
From his position on the Cuernavaca City Council, he filed multiple formal complaints and publicly challenged the administration led by PAN mayor José Luis Urióstegui Salgado, pointing to the government’s tolerance of clandestine bars and the ineffectiveness of local public security strategies.
Because of these stances, the official had previously reported receiving death threats from criminal groups operating in the municipality of Cuernavaca.
Additionally, Rivas Ríos led public protests against an increase in public transport fares authorized by the state government and demanded justice for the murder of activist Gustavo Salgado Delgado.
Hours before his execution in the town of Acapantzingo, Cuernavaca, the councilman had publicly denounced the company Verde Portenta for irregularities in the development of residential subdivisions and real estate towers in the capital of Morelos—a scheme he described as a corruption network linked to municipal public officials. Following the attack that took place in the Acapantzingo area of Cuernavaca, security forces and forensic experts from the Morelos State Attorney General’s Office arrived at the scene to collect ballistic evidence and begin the necessary investigations to locate the perpetrators.
