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2. Mayor candidate, who was killed in the Veracruz state of Mexico before the elections on June 1st

Texistepec – Armed people killed a candidate for mayor from the Mexican government party in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz and four others who accompanied them. The second such local candidates, who killed in the state before the elections on June 1, confirmed the authorities on Monday.

There were later reports on Monday that two federal agents were killed in another part of the state.

The attack on candidate Yesenia Lara Gutiérrez from the Morena party occurred on Sunday when she led a caravan of supporters through Texistepec. Three other people were wounded.

The governor of Veracruz, Rocío Nahle, also from the Morena party of President Claudia Sheinbaum, said on Monday that Lara Gutiérrez was one of the people killed.

Texistepec is a city with 20,000 southwest of the important port of the oil industry from CoattaCoalcos.

“No (selected) position is worth dying for dying,” said Nahle in a press conference on Monday, where she promised justice.

“The entire power of the state will be present in the coming days so that the elections are free and democratic,” she said.

On a Wake Monday in Texistepec in Texistepec, family and friends Lara Gutiérrez mourned and talked about the fear that the violence around the election was.

“We cannot continue the uncertainty, we are tired of terrorism,” said supporter Joaquín Fonseca. “There are five dead, not one. We live the worst of terrorism.”

Family friend Cruz Morales said that violence was so bad that “we are afraid to go to the fields, to visit our family in the evening because we don't know what will happen to us on the way.”

Lara Gutiérrez was the second mayor candidate who was killed during the campaign in Veracruz. On April 29th, the first official day of the campaign, armed men killed Germán Anuar Valencia, also from the government party at his election campaign headquarters in Coxquihui in the northern part of Veracruz.

Nahle said that 57 local candidates from the state and the federal government had asked for security. It was not immediately clear whether Lara Gutiérrez had done it.

The local elections are planned in the 212 municipalities of Veracruz for June 1st.

Local candidates have been most susceptible to voting in the past, as organized criminal groups are trying to gain control of the local governments.

Later on Monday, the local press reported that two federal agents and a third person were killed in an attack in the coastal city of Boca del Rio, Veracruz. An associated press photojournalist saw that federal agents and soldiers maintained a radius around the scene of the shootout.

Neither government nor federal authorities answered inquiries to confirm the toll.

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Alemán reported from Xalapa, Mexico.

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