The mayor of Nahuatzen, Michoacán, was abducted and killed this morning, state authorities said.
The Michoacán Attorney General’s Office (FGE) said in a statement that David Eduardo Otlica Avilés was kidnapped in San Isidro, Nahuatzen, in the early hours of this morning and that his body was later found at a place known as Cortijo Viejo in the municipality of Coeneo.
The FGE said it has opened an investigation into the crime and pledged that “there will be no impunity.”
People close to the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) mayor said he met yesterday with community landowners from Sevina, Nahuatzen.
After the meeting concluded at approximately 2:00am, municipal government personnel accompanied Otlica to his home, from where he had been working because the Indigenous Citizens’ Council has blocked access to the municipal palace to protest against what it says were fraudulent local government elections last July.
Minutes later, several men broke into the house and forcibly removed the mayor, the newspaper El Financiero reported. Family members alerted municipal and state authorities, who launched a search.
Michoacán Governor Silvano Aureoles condemned the murder in a Twitter post and said the state government will provide its full support to apprehend those responsible for the crime.
Nahuatzen, a largely indigenous municipality around 100 kilometers west of the state capital Morelia, has seen several incidents of violence in recent years.
They include a clash between police and armed civilians in February that left one man dead, another confrontation with police in which four people were killed in 2017 and the burning of ballots before elections on July 1, 2018.
Source: El Financiero (sp)
