The entire municipal police department of Ocampo, Michoacán, was taken into custody yesterday in connection with the investigation of last week’s assassination of a candidate for mayor.

State police arrested the 27 police officers and the chief under suspicion of ties with organized crime and the assassination on Thursday of Fernando Ángeles Juárez, who was running for mayor as the candidate of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD).

An attempt to arrest the police officers was thwarted on Saturday when Ocampo Police Chief Óscar González García and other officers allegedly repelled the state police with gunfire.

The latter have now taken over policing in Ocampo.

On Saturday, a man was arrested in the investigation into the assassination of Alejandro Chávez Zavala on June 14.

Chávez was running for reelection as mayor of Taretan under a National Action Party-Democratic Revolution Party-Citizens’ Movement coalition.

State Attorney General José Martín Godoy said that ballistic tests linked the suspect with the attack on Chávez and his wife.

Godoy said that a dispute in the organization of a local fair may have led to the killing. He added that the slain politician had been the victim of extortion on two occasions, but there was no evidence that he reported the crimes.

Source: El Universal (sp), BBC (en), Milenio (sp)