Maravatío de Ocampo, Mexico – Two pre-candidates for mayor of the municipality of Maravatío, in the Mexican state of Michoacán (west), were murdered on Monday, February 26, in different incidents, the regional prosecutor's office reported this Tuesday.
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The first victim was Miguel Angel Zavalaa doctor who aspired to obtain the candidacy of the Morena party – of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – for the mayor of the municipality, and who was attacked by gunfire on Monday afternoon while he was aboard his vehicle, military and police sources indicated.
The attack occurred when he was “parked in the back of the San Rafael clinic, where he worked,” located in the Rancho La Huerta subdivision, in the center of Maravatío, the Michoacán prosecutor's office reported in a statement on Monday night.
Zavala “presented wounds caused by a firearm shot,” the agency noted.
The attack was carried out by two hitmen who got out of a white car, approached the politician and shot him at point-blank range, and then fled in the same vehicle, according to testimonies collected by investigating police.
Hours later, the body of Armando Pérez Lunaaspiring to be the standard bearer of the opposition National Action Party (PAN) for the same position, was found inside a car with “wounds caused by a firearm shot,” the prosecutor's office detailed in a brief statement this Tuesday.
The PAN reacted to “the cowardly murders” of politicians in a statement and recalled that “it warned months ago about the need to install a security table” in the face of violence in that region.
Electoral violence
The wave of violence linked to organized crime that is shaking Mexico also affects politicians, especially those who hold or aspire to obtain municipal and state positions.
The reasons range from attempts by criminal groups to subjugate the candidates to their authority and interests to bloody disputes between local power groups.
In Mexico, 33 people have been murdered in episodes of electoral violence between June 4 and February 716 of whom were candidates for candidacy, according to a study by Laboratorio Electoral, a private analysis and research firm.
According to official figures, Mexico has recorded more than 420,000 murders, most attributed to criminal organizations, since the launch of a controversial military anti-drug offensive in December 2006.
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