Spanish
Veracruz (Mexico). – Former candidate for the Mayoralty of San Andrés Tuxtla, Pedro González Rodríguez, was shot dead this Tuesday in the state of Veracruz, according to police sources, becoming the second candidate killed in less than a month in this region of eastern Mexico.
The politician - who ran in 2021 under the banner of the local political party Todos por Veracruz - was shot at his private residence located in the community of Villa Comoapan in the municipality of San Andrés Tuxtla, in the south of the state.
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The hitmen shot at the 65-year-old victim and fled the scene, without police officers being able to find them despite the strong operation that was set up at the scene. The Attorney General's Office initiated an investigation into the case amid the outrage of residents of that jungle region. On November 6th, the former candidate of the opposition right-wing National Action Party (PAN) for the Mayor's Office of Chinameca, Lázaro Francisco Luría, was kidnapped and murdered. The body of the former municipal president appeared near a state highway that connects the municipalities of Oteapan with Zaragoza. Veracruz, located on the Gulf of Mexico, has suffered a spiral of violence during the present year related to the operation of drug cartels and criminal organizations dedicated to extortion, protection money, and kidnapping. These crimes occur in a context of political violence in the country, after last November 1, a group of hitmen shot Carlos Manzo Rodríguez, mayor of the municipality of Uruapan, in the state of Michoacán (west), a crime that shocked the population. Manzo raised his voice on several occasions to demand from President Claudia Sheinbaum federal support to confront organized crime operating in Uruapan. The mayor even announced rewards for municipal police officers who killed hitmen. In the present year, there have been at least 56 assassinations of political actors in Mexico, according to a count by the civil organization Causa en Común.
