Workers Party’s Jessica Luna Aguilera Murdered

ByMexico Solidarity

This article by Itzel Molina originally appeared in the October 6, 2025 edition of Diaro de Xalapa.

Editor’s note: This is the second murder of a PT mayoral candidate in Veracruz in less than a month. Ignacio Pablo Sánchez, former Workers Party candidate for mayor of Santiago Sochiapan, in southern Veracruz, was murdered in the early evening of September 17.

From the Plenary Session of the local Congress, Representative Elizabeth Morales García confirmed the murder of the former PT candidate for mayor of Yanga, Jessica Luna Aguilera.

Taking the floor, where she presented an initiative to punish aesthetic violence, she expressed her condolences to the former candidate’s family, noting that Jessica Luna Aguilera was currently the coordinator of the Labor Party in the municipality of Yanga, for which she ran in the elections held on June 1. “We send our condolences to her family,” she said.

She also called on authorities to bring justice to this case. “We demand justice so that this femicide does not go unpunished.”

According to the preliminary report, the incident occurred in the Potrero Nuevo community, in the municipality of Atoyac, near the Section 23 sports field. This is just 11 kilometers from the municipality of Yanga.

In last June’s elections, Jessica Luna Aguilera ran for mayor of Yanga, finishing second. The current mayor-elect is Rafael Aguilar Martínez, a former PRI representative.

Yanga is located in the center of Veracruz, bordering Cuitláhuac, Atoyac and Omealca. According to its history, it is the first free town founded and liberated by a community of enslaved African runaways who escaped from their masters. An African prince named Yanga was its founder, on August 10, 1609.

El Gritón News reports that the candidate had complained of state police harassment for months prior to her murder.