A mayoral candidate and five other people were killed when people opened fire at an election rally in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas, authorities said. It was the most recent shooting incident in a region that has experienced frequent turf wars between cartels due to migrant and drug smuggling routes.
Prosecutors said the girl was among the six people killed in the shooting late Thursday, along with mayoral candidate Lucero López Maza. Two others were injured.
In a statement, the public prosecutor’s office claimed that fighting between armed civilians interrupted a political rally.
Due to the prevalence and frequency of firearms in the area, it was unclear whether López-Maza was the intended target of the attack.
La Concordia, a rural town in Chiapas State about 130 miles from the Guatemalan border, was the scene of an intersection shooting.
The area near the Guatemalan border is a major smuggling route for drugs and migrants, with Mexico’s two biggest drug cartels vying for control of the area.
Eleven people were killed in a shooting on Tuesday in the village of Chicomcero, Chiapas State, dozens of miles from La Concordia.
Chiapas is a popular tourist destination due to its lush vegetation, Mayan ruins, and indigenous communities.
However, intense violence has broken out in the border region as rival new-generation cartels, Sinaloa and Jalisco, vie for territory. Just last month, masked men stopped the car carrying Claudia Sheinbaum, a leading Mexican presidential candidate, while she was traveling between campaign stops, threatening to carry out a campaign in Chiapas if she wins the June 2 election. He urged action to be taken against acts of violence.
So far in 2024, about 20 Mexican political candidates have been killed ahead of next month’s elections, including a mayoral candidate who was shot dead just starting his campaign last month. include.
