Two Mexican mayors and a vice mayor were killed in different parts of the country on Saturday, according to Mexican officials.
Ambrosio Soto Duarte, mayor of Pungarabato, a small town in Guerrero, was killed in neighboring Michoacan state, Hector Astudillo Flores, the governor of Guerrero, said in a news conference Sunday.
Duarte was riding on a freeway when two pickup trucks stopped his car, Flores said. A shootout ensued, killing Duarte and a suspect and injuring two police officers in Duarte’s security detail
Duarte had received death threats, prompting him to request security for himself and his family beginning in January, said Flores.
He was not the only government official Mexican mayor to meet a violent death on Saturday.
Domingo Lopez Gonzalez, mayor of San Juan Chamula, and Vice Mayor Narciso Lunes Hernandez were among five people shot and killed in the town’s main square, said Juan Carlos Gomez Aranda, the secretary of government for the state of Chiapas.
They were meeting with residents when a group of armed men shot at the crowd, Gomez Aranda said.
Another 12 people were wounded, he said.
The attorney general’s office in Chiapas said it is investigating Saturday’s killings.