MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The mayor of a town in one of Mexico’s most troubled states was gunned down on Thursday just weeks after the government sent the armed forces to restore order in the area, authorities and local media said.
Federal authorities and officials in the western state of Michoacan condemned the killing of Cesar Arturo Valencia Caballero, mayor of Aguililla, a municipality which Mexican media said had fallen under the control of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) before the army moved in last month.
Citing a local priest, news website Quadratin Michoacan said Valencia had been shot three times by an unidentified gunman. The Michoacan attorney general’s office said on Twitter it was investigating the homicide, but gave no further details.
According to the U.S. government, Aguililla is where CJNG leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera was born.
Oseguera is among the most wanted men in Mexico’s criminal underworld. The CJNG is one of the most powerful gangs in the country and for years has waged brutal turf wars with rivals for control of trafficking routes in Michoacan on the Pacific coast.
(Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez and Kylie Madry; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
