The assassination late yesterday of a mayor-elect in the state of Puebla could have been to settle scores, said the state’s Public Security Secretariat.

Félix Aguilar Caballero, who won the July 1 election for mayor of Nopalucan, was traveling on the Nopalucan-Soltepec highway when he was intercepted by two vehicles, whose occupants shot and killed him in the community of Santa María Ixtiyucan.

A state security official said there were suspicions that the Green Party mayor-elect was involved in petroleum theft and train robberies.

After the shooting, paramedics confirmed Aguilar’s death but about 100 people gathered at the scene and initially refused to allow either state or municipal police to approach Aguilar’s vehicle, which they covered with a tarp to prevent photographs being taken of the victim.

The newspaper Página Negra reported last month that six Puebla mayors have been assassinated in the last five years. Although arrests have been made in two of the cases, none of the six has been solved.

Aguilar, 60, was scheduled to take office October 15.

Source: e-consulta (sp)