On Monday July 1 the body of Ricardo Reyes Zamudio was discovered riddled with bullet wounds. The mayoral candidate for Mayor in municipality of Sam Dimas, Mexico was kidnapped on Sunday while attending a funeral in Durango. There has been a wave of violence against local politicians leading up to Mexico's July 7 vote.
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On Sunday July 7 citizens in 15 Mexican states will go to the polls to vote in a new set of local government. The candidates include mayors and other local law making officials. Some of the 15 states voting for new officials have until recently been ruled by drug cartels and gang violence. The platform for many candidates is that they will come down harder on drug gangs in their areas.
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In some of these Mexican states 60,000 people have died as a result of violence between gangs and Mexican troops sent in to liberate areas long under the control of drug cartels. The Mexican government began to send troops into these drug war, torn areas in an attempt to end the violence. Inadvertently they created more violence.
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Members of Ricardo Reyes Zamudio's political party have blamed the candidate's death on organized crime. They have also called the killers "cowards" and have promised to find the murders. This promise is not meant only to get justice for Zamudio but to prove to the people their government can insure their security.
Two candidates in the state of Sinaloa have dropped out of their respective races for fear they will become targets. In addition to Zamudio several other politicians have been killed or wounded by gunmen in the month leading up to the elections.
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