| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico 
Mexican Candidate Killed in Drug-Plagued Region
 E. Eduardo Castillo - Associated Press
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May 14, 2010
Mexico City — Gunmen killed a candidate for mayor Thursday in a northern border region where his party says politicians are too scared to run for office because of death threats and rampant drug gang violence.
Jose Mario Guajardo was gunned down in the offices of his agricultural supplies company, along with his son and an employee, said Francisco Garza, leader of the National Action Party in Tamaulipas state.
Guajardo was running on the party's ticket for mayor of Valle Hermoso, a town about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Brownsville, Texas.
It was unclear who killed Guajardo or why. The Tamaulipas state government confirmed his killing in a brief statement.
Leaders of National Action - the center-right party of President Felipe Calderon - had warned recently of trouble recruiting candidates for three mayorships and two other local posts in Tamaulipas because many politicians are too scared to run in the July 4 elections.
Nine other states are also holding elections that day for governors, mayors and other local posts.
Violence has swept Tamaulipas recently amid a fierce turf battle between the Gulf cartel and its former ally, the Zetas gang. Federal troops, deployed to the state under Calderon's nationwide offensive against cartels, have come under systematic attack, and civilians have increasingly been caught in the crossfire.
Jose Julian Sacramento, the National Action candidate for Tamaulipas governor, said recently that several candidates had been threatened. He said he and party leaders were discussing the possibility of letting candidates run without campaigning.
"We've been left without candidates because of the fear of organized crime," Sacramento told the Mexican newspaper El Universal.
At a news conference, Garza, the state party leader, declined to comment on the possible motive for Guajardo's killing.
"Authorities must tell us what is happening. We want them to investigate and give us an answer," he said.
Mexico has long struggled to keep organized crime from infiltrating politics. Twelve mayors in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan were arrested last year for allegedly protecting a drug cartel, though most have been let go for lack of evidence. Last week, an ex-governor of eastern Quintana Roo state was extradited to the U.S. on drug trafficking charges.
Calderon stepped up the battle against Mexico's brutal drug cartels after taking office in December 2006, deploying thousands of troops and federal police across the country. Drug gang violence has surged since then, claiming more than 22,700 lives.
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