MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A popular gubernatorial candidate in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas was murdered by suspected drug hitmen yesterday in the worst sign so far of political intimidation by smuggling gangs.
Traders sold Mexico’s peso heavily as TV images showed the bodies of Rodolfo Torre, 46, and four aides from the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which holds power in Tamaulipas, lying on a highway. They were ambushed on their way to a campaign event for the July 4 state election.
It was Mexico’s highest-level political murder in some 16 years and the latest blow to the country’s image as a stable emerging market as drug gangs brazenly fight security forces deployed to quash their power and try to sway Sunday’s vote for governors, mayors and local deputies in a dozen states.
“This is not a message, it’s a challenge. How far are they prepared to go?” said national security specialist Javier Oliva at Mexico’s National Autonomous University in Mexico City.
President Felipe Calderon slammed what he called a cowardly attack on Mexico’s democratic institutions and vowed to keep up his fight against drug gangs. He called an emergency security cabinet meeting and urged political parties to stand together.
