Alejandro Chavez Zavala was running for mayor of Tareta in the state of Michoacan when he was gunned down following a campaign event.
He is the 114th candidate to be murdered in this election cycle, leading up to the vote on July 1.
Primarily, the murdered candidates were standing for local office, running on anti-corruption tickets.
23,000 people were murdered in Mexico last year, the worst on record. The safest way to run for office is to reassure cartels that you will cooperate with them and allow them to operate with impunity. This does not bode well for Mexico's future.
At least 113 politicians have been killed in the bloodiest election campaign in Mexico's modern history, and the violence appears to be intensifying in the final weeks before the July 1 national election.
According to Mexico City-based security consultancy Etellekt, many of the slain candidates were running for local office.
Michael Lettieri, a historian at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego, said: "The risk going forward is that there will be reluctance to participate in local politics because it has become so dangerous."
Mexican Mayoral Candidate Becomes Murder Victim Number 114
[Reuters]
