The mayor of a town in one of Mexico’s most violent drug corridors was shot to death, the second mayor killed in Mexico in two days.
Ambrosio Soto was mayor of a township that includes Ciudad Altamirano, a known haven for drug traffickers in southern Guerrero state.
Roberto Alvarez, spokesman for southern Guerrero state, said Sunday that gunmen blocked a highway just over the state line in neighboring Michoacan state with pickup trucks and opened fire on the mayor’s vehicle late Saturday. He said two federal officers serving as Soto’s bodyguards were wounded in the attack.
Soto had received threats and was under protection from federal police. A local drug gang had reportedly threatened him because he refused to turn over part of the city budget as a protection payment.
In recent years, business owners in Ciudad Altamirano say they have been forced to pay extortion to the Knights Templar drug cartel.
The leftist Democratic Revolution Party said the mayor had taken “special protection measures after he dared to file complaints and complained that the security patrols had abandoned the area.
The party said 75 mayors have been killed in the last decade.
On Saturday, a mayor and four others were shot to death in the town of San Juan Chamula in southern Chiapas state.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
If people did not buy drugs there will be no drugs killing. I heard that a lot of dirty politicians are getting a big cut from these drug dealers its not your next door neighborhood guy no more this go way up very deep. Ill bet you anything that Hell-lary will protect drug dealers because she can get more money out of them than getting 600 thousand for a lecture. The only thing she had to fo is turn the head the other way instead of “working hard” for an hour giving a lecture
Ron Paul urged the legalization of all recreational drugs. Too bad he didn’t receive more support. He’s looking smarter every day.
Humans being people or maybe it’s people being human means that legal drugs will remain illegal because the people selling all drugs will try to avoid the taxes and regulations on legal drugs that legalization will bring thus turning legal drugs into illegal drugs.