MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The mayor of a town in one of Mexico’s most troubled states was shot dead on Thursday near a soccer field just weeks after the government sent the armed forces to restore order in the area, authorities 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.
Valencia was shot three times while driving home from city hall, authorities said, adding that forensics had found bullet shells at the scene.
The Michoacan attorney general’s office said in a statement it was investigating the homicide. It did not name suspects and 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 and Kenneth Maxwell)