5 people were shot dead in a town south of the Mexican capital; Body parts found in the Gulf Coast area

Schools and some businesses were closed and a small number of people walked the streets of a town south of the Mexican capital on Tuesday, hours after five people were shot dead on the same street where Another attack killed eight Just eight months ago.

Huitzilac is located in the middle of a troubled region in the state of Morelos where there are competing criminal organizations and illegal logging. The dead appear to have been campaigning for local positions to manage the community’s collective resources, such as the surrounding forest, ahead of elections scheduled for March.

On Monday afternoon, just as every afternoon in recent weeks, four men and a woman from one of the groups competing in the local elections for the management of communal lands and forests were walking from house to house campaigning. Armed men intercepted them in two cars and left them dead on the main street of Huitzilac.

“I told them for years not to participate, there are always problems,” said Blanca Delgadillo, whose brother-in-law Jose Cuevas, a farmer, was among those killed.

Delgadillo, 70, said violence has swept the farming community in recent years, forcing its 20,000 residents to live in fear.

Mayor Cesar Davila Diaz, who took office on January 1, condemned the attack Post on social mediaSaying that such events “affect our municipality because they have always described us as a hotspot” for violence.

The mayor denied the existence of drug gangs, denied the possibility of a political motive, and said that he did not know what the motive was.

On Tuesday morning, traces of blood and five candles appeared on the sidewalk.

Two hundred National Guard members were arriving to support local and state police patrolling the area.

Jose Romero, a 53-year-old farmer who lives a few meters from the site of the attack, said he was watching television when he heard the gunfire.

He said that the security situation in the town, up and down, depends on the presence of security forces. When the National Guard is not present, these types of attacks occur, Romero said.

An attack last May targeted men who were drinking beer after a soccer match, just two weeks before Mexico’s presidential election. Four people died instantly at the scene, while four others died after being taken to hospital Morelos Prosecutor’s Office said at that time.

President Claudia Sheinbaum, who won those elections easily, assumed a complex security situation. On Friday, Sheinbaum launched a campaign to eliminate the number of weapons on the country’s streets Offering cash for firearms.

Dozens of criminal organizations are fighting for control of territory across Mexico, seeking to ensure safe routes for smuggling migrants, drugs and weapons, but also increasingly to extort communities.

Her administration has shown a greater willingness to go after criminal organizations than that of her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but hotspots extend across the country. Factions of Sinaloa poster They have been at war in the capital of Sinaloa state for months.

Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco new generation The gangs are fighting in a number of states, from central Michoacan to the southern state of Michoacán Chiapas Along the border with Guatemala.

On Tuesday, the remains of an unknown number of victims were found along a highway in the Gulf state of Tabasco, as that state’s governor announced the arrival of 180 soldiers to address rising violence. Earlier this month, A.J Shooting at the bar In Tabasco, it left seven dead and five wounded.

Tabasco, home to oil production facilities, has seen an increase in violent crime in recent months. In December, Seven inmates were killed In a riot at Tabasco prison. A month before that, Six people were killed 10 were wounded in another armed attack on a bar in the state.