Political Activist Slain in Western Mexico- Gunned down

MORELIA, Mexico – The former local chief of Mexico’s conservative National Action Party in this western city was gunned down in front of his home, the Michoacan state police said.

Eduardo Flores Vizcaino, a prominent developer, headed the Morelia office of the party, known by the acronym PAN, from 2005-2007.

He was fatally shot when he emerged from his residence, located about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from the Michoacan statehouse, where officials were outlining a new strategy to apprehend the leader of the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel, Servando “La Tuta” Gomez Martinez.

The state chairman of the PAN, Miguel Angel Chavez Zavala, demanded that authorities track down and punish the authors of the “regrettable deed.”

“With this case there are 10 National Action officials and leaders who have been victims of the state of violence and insecurity that Michoacan is experiencing,” the PAN said in a statement.

Mexico’s No. 2 public official, Government Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chang, announced last week that President Enrique Peña Nieto had decided to eliminate the post of federal commissioner for security and development in Michoacan.

He shared the news during a public hearing in Morelia to review the strategy the federal government has followed since intervening in Michoacan a year ago amid conflict between organized crime and vigilante groups.

The federal intervention in Michoacan met with some success initially, including the arrest of leading figures in the Templarios cartel and the incorporation of many of the vigilantes into an army-controlled Rural Force.

But violence flared in the state again last month, when 11 people died in an incident involving rival factions of the Rural Force.