| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2009 
Gunmen Attack Mexican Political Candidate, Kill 2
 Reuters
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June 27, 2009
Monterrey, Mexico - Suspected drug hitmen attacked a candidate for Mexico's Congress and killed two of his aides, days before the July 5 mid-term election.
Gunmen shot at a vehicle carrying candidate Ernesto Cornejo from Mexico's ruling National Action Party, or PAN, in the town of Benito Juarez in the northern state of Sonora late on Thursday, the state attorney general's office said.
He was unharmed.
The attack was the first time a politician has been directly shot at while campaigning for the congressional vote. Members of the conservative PAN party have denounced threats by drug gangs in northern Mexico.
The PAN's national campaign has focused intensely on President Felipe Calderon army-led crackdown on drug cartels. A string of recent arrests have linked a number of mayors and officials from different parties to trafficking gangs.
The drug war is a major concern for voters and investors as well as a source of anxiety for the United States as gangs fight for dominance of the $40 billion-a-year trafficking trade. It has already damaged foreign investment and tourism.
Sonora is key drug smuggling territory, but Cornejo was not known to have links to cartels.
Calderon has sent thousands of troops across Mexico to try and rein in a cartel war that has killed 12,300 people since he took office in Dec. 2006.
Rural towns are particularly vulnerable as rival cartels seek to control staging posts along smuggling routes to the United States.
Mexico will elect candidates to all 500 seats in the lower house on July 5, along with six state governors and hundreds of mayors. Authorities in northern states are mounting major security operations to prevent attacks at voting booths.
Drug Gang Shootout with Police Kills 12 in Mexico
Robin Emmott - Reuters
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June 27, 2009
Mexico City - A daylight shootout between suspected drug gang hitmen and security forces killed at least 12 people in a small town in central Mexico on Friday, Mexican media said.
Hitmen opened fire on police and soldiers and threw grenades after officers tried to arrest them in Apaseo el Alto in normally tranquil Guanajuato state, reports said. The local attorney general's office could not immediately confirm the reports.
Rival gangs have taken their fight over Mexico's $40 billion-a-year drug trade inland from the U.S. border region as they battle for cocaine smuggling routes running up from Central America into the United States.
President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of troops across Mexico to try and rein in the cartel turf wars, but violence has surged and killed 12,300 people since he took office in December 2006.
(Editing by Bill Trott) |
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