Anthony ousts Mayor Diana Murillo, elects Gabriel Holguin

Anthony Mayor Diana Murillo was ousted in Tuesday’s election by a young city council member and fellow Democrat with whom she had exchanged verbal barbs, procedural jousts and lawsuits in recent years.

According to unofficial results, which will not be finalized until the election canvass is complete, Trustee Gabriel Holguin, 24, drew 535 votes compared to the 52-year-old Murillo’s 299 — or 59% of the total. A third candidate in the nonpartisan election, Oscar Enriquez, received 66 votes.

The election places Holguin among the youngest mayors in the country and in New Mexico history. Holguin is the same age as Sunland Park Mayor Javier Perea when Perea was appointed to his office in 2012.

Yet Holguin was not the youngest candidate on the ballot: Enriquez is 21.

After a contentious term serving alongside Murillo, Holguin told the Journal his initial focus was on repairing relationships inside City Hall and in the community.

“I think Anthony citizens have lost their faith in government and that’s the number-one thing on my agenda: Repairing the public trust,” he said in an interview.

Holguin said he would trade his job as a paralegal for a full-time commitment to the city for the first year, if not longer.

“Anthony requires so much work from the ground up, from connecting with people to learning the processes,” he said. “If we want a good government, I don’t think I can be part-time mayor.”

The election offers an opportunity for the city of under 9,000 to turn a page on conflicts that have upstaged major developments, including the recent opening of an urgent care facility, redevelopment on the grounds of a former golf course, water infrastructure projects and discussion of annexing land to the north.

Holguin was elected to an open seat on the Board of Trustees in 2021 at age 20. Two months later, disputes arose after the trustees fired City Manager Oscar Dominguez and hired Mario Juarez-Infante, Murillo’s pick for the job, amid controversy over his compensation, the city’s compliance with personnel policies and ordinances.

Holguin and some other trustees expressed outrage over a part-time arrangement in which Juarez-Infante split his time as city manager for Anthony and Sunland Park. Ultimately, Juarez-Infante left Anthony city government to work for Sunland Park full-time.

Holguin accused Murillo of misleading the trustees, interfering with meeting agendas, ejecting critics from public meetings and fostering a hostile environment at City Hall. During 2023 he filed ethics complaints against the mayor and called on her to resign.

In turn, Murillo asked a court to remove Holguin from office, alleging he had misused a city photocopy machine, in a 2023 lawsuit she later dropped. Over a dozen residents including Trustee Fernando Herrera filed two lawsuits that year seeking Murillo’s removal from office based on allegations including Open Meetings Act violations, breaches of city ordinances, misuse of public funds and other malfeasance. Both cases were dropped.

In 2024, city trustees directed Murillo to pay the city back $24,000 in public money spent in her lawsuit against Holguin, arguing it had been a personal dispute, although Murillo said she brought the action on the city’s behalf.

Diana Murillo was elected as Anthony’s mayor in 2016, and had been a trustee before that. In 2020, she was elected as a Doña Ana County commissioner and held both offices until she was unseated as commissioner in a Democratic primary by Anthony resident Gloria Gameros in 2024.

This year, Murillo faced down accusations that she lived outside city limits, after a landlord-tenant dispute surfaced in court involving Murillo’s daughter. Murrillo’s name was on the lease for a rental property in Santa Teresa, but the mayor said she had simply co-signed the document with her daughter and remained a lifelong resident of Anthony. Trustees once again considered taking action to remove Murillo.

By that time, Holguin was openly musing about a mayoral run himself and made it official soon after.

Murillo told the Journal, “I’m very grateful for the opportunity to serve my city and its residents for so many years. I do wish the best to the incoming administration, for the sake of the residents and the city staff. … I wish them continued success building on our progress.”

She said her immediate focus would be to finish up her term. “From there, we’ll see what God has planned for me,” she said.