Also on Thursday, Héctor López Cruz, a councilman candidate from the governing party, was ambushed outside his home and reportedly shot 16 times in Huimanguillo, Tabasco state. His death has been attributed to an on-going dispute between gangs angling to steal fuel from state-owned company Pemex.
Multiple Mexican politicians have been murdered by criminal gangs in the weeks leading up to the country’s national and local legislative elections in June.
Enrique Hernández Salcedo, a mayoral candidate in the southern state of Michoacán, was gunned down in a plaza in Yurécuaro on Thursday, Jude Webber of FT reports. Hernández was running as a candidate from the leftist opposition Morena party. He was reportedly the leader of a vigilante “self-defense” group that fought against the Knights Templar drug cartel and other criminal groups in the area. He has also criticized the local government for corruption and other abuses.
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