Culiacán Labor Leader Homar Salas Gastélum Shot Dead on Eve of May Day

Homar Salas Gastélum, the elected leader of the Union of Workers at the Service of the City of Culiacán (STASAC), was shot and killed at his home in Culiacán, Sinaloa, one day before International Workers' Day. Peace Brigades International (PBI) documented the killing as part of a regional pattern of targeted attacks against labor leaders and human rights defenders across Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, and Guatemala coinciding with May 1 demonstrations. Salas Gastélum had been a vocal advocate for municipal workers' rights and was known for resisting informal pressure from organized crime-affiliated interests in Culiacán's labor sector. His assassination came at a moment of acute instability in Sinaloa: the day coincided with the announcement of the US federal indictment of Governor Rubén Rocha Moya on drug trafficking charges. Mexico's labor movement has faced a sustained campaign of targeted killings under the Sheinbaum administration, with the National Federation of Independent Unions (FENSIL) documenting 14 labor leader killings in the first six months of 2026. Mexico's criminal impunity rate of 97% means the vast majority of such killings go unprosecuted.