Pubdate: Tue, 29 Jun 2010
Source: New York Times (NY)
Page: A4
Copyright: 2010 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Marc Lacey
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Felipe+Calderon

MEXICAN CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR IS ASSASSINATED

MEXICO CITY -- A popular candidate for governor who had made 
increased security his prime campaign pledge was killed along with at 
least four others Monday morning in a brazen attack, rattling a 
nation already alarmed by surging drug violence.

Despite years of atrocities tied to drug gangs, the killing of a 
candidate who was widely considered the front-runner just days before 
voters go to the polls drew unusually wide condemnation, and it drove 
election-related violence to a level not seen in Mexico in years.

"This was an act not only against a candidate of a political party 
but against democratic institutions, and it requires a united and 
firm response from all those who work for democracy," a stern-faced 
President Felipe Calderon, who has found his presidency repeatedly 
bogged down by drug violence, said in a nationally televised address.

Gunmen with automatic weapons opened fire on the motorcade of the 
candidate, Rodolfo Torre Cantu, 46, as he headed to an event in the 
closing days of the campaign, the authorities said. The murders came 
during a rise in election-related violence in recent months, 
including the shooting deaths of a mayoral candidate and of an 
activist during a get-out-the-vote effort. Explosives have also been 
thrown at two separate campaign offices this month.

The Torre killing is arguably the highest-profile case of political 
violence since 1994, when a presidential candidate, Luis Donaldo 
Colosio, was assassinated. While it has helped unite political 
parties that had been in fierce competition, Mr. Torre's death adds 
to a particularly dire month for Mr. Calderon, who unleashed a war on 
drug traffickers upon taking office in 2006 and has seen violence 
spike as a result.

The bloodiest 24-hour period of Mr. Calderon's presidency occurred 
this month, when 85 people were killed, 10 of them federal police 
officers ambushed by traffickers. Also this month, the authorities 
found dozens of bodies, suspected trafficker victims, buried in a 
closed silver mine near Taxco, a popular tourist spot.

Statistics compiled by Mexican newspapers show that 2010 is on its 
way to becoming the deadliest year since Mr. Calderon took office. 
There have been more than 5,000 drug-related killings so far this 
year, exceeding the totals in 2007 and 2008 and nearing the worst 
year, 2009, when about 6,500 people died in drug-related violence.

Immediate suspicion in the Torre case also fell on drug traffickers. 
Mr. Torre's state, Tamaulipas, which borders Texas on the gulf coast, 
has been the site of fierce fighting in recent months between rival 
drug organizations, the Zetas and their former allies, the Gulf Cartel.

Mr. Calderon has called on the country to stick with him through the 
violence, repeatedly describing it as a sign that traffickers were in 
their death throes and were striking back because of the sustained 
attack by the police and army.

Despite strong backing of Mr. Calderon by the Obama administration, 
many Mexicans have increasing doubts and his National Action Party 
has suffered at the polls in previous contests, in part because of 
weariness with the drug war.

"The argument whereby the government says that the more violence 
there is, the greater is their success, is absurd," said Jorge 
Castaneda, a former foreign minister and a leading critic of Mr. 
Calderon's approach.

Mr. Torre, 46, was a burly, gray-haired surgeon and federal 
congressman representing the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or 
P.R.I., which currently controls Tamaulipas. He was married and had 
three children.

Two campaign vehicles that had been carrying the candidate, aides and 
bodyguards to the airport outside the state capital, Ciudad Victoria, 
were found about 10:30 a.m. The windows had been shattered by 
bullets, the doors were open and bodies were sprawled in the roadway 
and on the shoulder in images broadcast on television. Mr. Torre, 
whose face was painted on the side of the bullet-ridden vehicles, was 
among the dead, the authorities said. Also killed were his campaign 
manager, Enrique Blackmore, a state legislator.

Although law enforcement officials were tight-lipped Monday on their 
investigation into the killings, politicians said they saw them as a 
brash message from organized crime.

"What organized crime wants is that we stay in our houses, that we 
are afraid, and they are saying, 'We want to control the country,'" 
said Xochitl Galvez, a candidate for governor in Hidalgo State. She 
urged voters to turn out at the polls to show that the people, not 
criminals, still rule.

Ms. Galvez told reporters that her campaign had received threats from 
people who identified themselves as members of the Zetas. As a 
result, Ms. Galvez said on Monday that she was moving her children 
and other relatives into hiding to keep them save.

Even before the killing of Mr. Torre, those involved in a variety of 
the gubernatorial, mayoral and local legislative races to be held 
Sunday in 14 states said they had been forced to limit travel during 
evening hours and avoid some areas altogether.

In Tamaulipas, rival candidates suspended their campaigns on Monday 
to honor Mr. Torre. The Associated Press reported Monday that 
elections in the state will proceed on July 4, as scheduled.

The state has been one of the country's most troubled regions 
recently. On June 3, in Ciudad Madero, a mayoral candidate and a 
candidate for the local congress were pinned down during an armed 
battle between rival drug gangs. A month before that, a mayoral 
candidate in Valle Hermoso was killed.

Some areas of the state are so dangerous that the president's party 
announced last month that it would not campaign in three small border 
towns because of the risk to its candidates. An opposition party 
candidate announced in April that he was pulling out of his race, one 
day after his house was burned down.

On Mr. Torre's campaign page on Facebook, supporters expressed shock 
and indignation. "I feel such anger and impotence," wrote one backer. 
"How long are these things going to happen?"

Over the weekend, another killing left Mexicans, weary of the drug 
wars, shaking their heads. A popular singer who often sang of the 
drug trade, Sergio Vega, known as El Shaka, was killed Saturday night 
in Sinaloa State. Hours before his killing he had denied false 
reports that he had been killed.

"It's happened to me for years now, someone tells a radio station or 
a newspaper I've been killed, or suffered an accident," Mr. Vega told 
an entertainment Web site. "And then I have to call my dear mother, 
who has heart trouble, to reassure her."

The latest report of his death, however, was accurate. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake