Mexico’s Mayoral Candidate, Enrique Hernandez, Fatally Shot In Restive Michoacan State

By Suman Varandani @suman09 s.varandani@ibtimes.com on May 15 2015 2:54 AM EDT

In photo - Police guard outside the town hall after a shooting between federal forces and armed civilians in the town of Apatzingan, Michoacan Jan. 6, 2015. A politician running for mayor for a town in the Mexican state of Michoacan, was fatally shot on May 14, 2015. Reuters/Alan Ortega

Enrique Hernandez, who was running for mayor in the Yurecuaro town in the Mexican state of Michoacan, was fatally shot Thursday, his political party said, according to the Associated Press. This is the second such death of a mayoral candidate this month in western Mexico.
Hernandez was shot in gunfire from a moving vehicle in Yurecuaro in the restive Michoacan state, the state prosecutor's office said in a statement, according to local reports. Three other people were reportedly injured in the shooting.
Hernandez was a candidate for Morena, a left-wing democratic socialist political party of two-time presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. He was also reportedly a leader of the town's "self-defense force," which was among the
vigilante groups that were formed by farmers in Michoacan in 2013 to fight the Knights Templar drug cartel that had carried out murder, kidnappings and extortion in the state.
Earlier in May, Ulises Fabian Quiroz was killed in a shooting while running for mayor in Chilapa town in the state of Guerrero, which lies northwest of Michoacan state.
Michoacan and the neighboring state of Guerrero have been battling with security issues as the regions have been hit by drug gang violence and social tensions in recent months.