A candidate for municipal council was killed yesterday in the state of Puebla, in the central part of Mexico, less than 48 hours before the elections in the country, reported AFP, quoted by BTA.
Jorge Huerta Cabrera, a candidate for the municipal council of Isúcar de Matamoros, a city of about 80,000 people, was killed and his wife and an associate were wounded in the attack, a Puebla state government source told AFP, and prosecutor's office official. According to Mexican media, 30-year-old Huerta Cabrera was shot multiple times in broad daylight as he got out of his car.
According to data from the federal government, a total of 25 candidates for local positions have been killed in Mexico since the start of the election campaign.
The crime was committed on the eve of the June 2 election, in which Mexicans will choose their new president and more than 20,000 national and local leaders.
Drug cartels and other criminal organizations are putting pressure on candidates of all parties in hopes of maintaining their influence after the election. According to the authorities, they are also trying to impose their candidates by choosing one of them and forbidding the others to run under threat of death, notes AFP.