A team of cartel gunmen in the violent state of Michoacan murdered the current mayor of a small city as he was campaigning for re-election days after a hitman killed a congressional candidate in the border state of Coahuila.
To date, at least 114 politicians were murdered in Mexico during the current election cycle.
The most recent murder took place in the town of La Floria, where Mayor Alejandro Chavez Zavala was visiting with his staff as part of his campaign for re-election as head to the municipality of Taretan in the southern state of Michoacan. Law enforcement information provided to Breitbart Texas revealed that Chavez was traveling with his wife when a team of gunmen riding in a black Ford Lobo pulled up and began firing. The shots mortally wounded Chavez, who died soon after at the hospital in the nearby town of Uruapan. His wife remains listed in critical condition.
The murder of Chavez comes seven days after a hitman shot and killed Fernando Puron, the former mayor of the border city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila. Puron was attending a political as part of his bid for Mexico’s Congress, Breitbart Texas reported. While authorities identified two possible suspects, no arrests have been made in the case.
The consulting firm Etellekt documented 113 murders of political candidates as of June 12. The most recent murder is not part of the list. The study recorded the number of political candidates since the start of the cycle in Mexico which began in September 2017 and will conclude on July 1.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.