Mexican authorities confirmed Wednesday that a federal lawmaker was killed and burned after being abducted in broad daylight, shocking his ruling party amid government assurances that violence is down. Deputy Gabriel Gomez Michel was driving to the airport in the western state of Jalisco on Monday when a clutch of cars intercepted his sport-utility vehicle, authorities said.
The 49-year-old former pediatrician's body was found early Tuesday in the neighbouring state of Zacatecas inside the charred remains of his SUV, alongside the burned corpse of his assistant. The Jalisco prosecutor's office said forensic experts positively identified the bodies of Gomez Michel and Heriberto Nunez Ramos. In a statement, the office said authorities were investigating who was behind the "double homicide."
The chief prosecutor of Zacatecas, Arturo Nahle, said the murder resembled the "modus operandi" of organized crime. Security cameras captured the abduction, showing cars flanking the lawmaker's SUV as a man in a red shirt points at his window on the road outside Guadalajara. His wife had called the authorities to report his disappearance.
Gomez Michel's home state Jalisco is a bastion of the New Generation drug cartel, one of the country's most powerful gangs, which have killed tens of thousands of people in turf wars since 2006.
Local politicians have often been the targets of attacks or threats during Mexico's drug war, with at least 30 mayors killed since 2006, but attacks against federal lawmakers are less common. PRI lawmaker Moises Villanueva was killed in 2011. El Universal newspaper documented attacks against five other federal legislators since 2006, and a foiled plot against a senator and his congressman brother last year.
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