Cartel Gunmen at Roadblock Threaten Mexican Gubernatorial Candidate at Gunpoint

A federal police officer holds a fire extinguisher as he stands next to the vandalized veh
Previously vandalized vehicle of Luis Walton Aburto, Gubernatorial Candidate. Photo: JORGE DAN LOPEZ/Reuters

At least twenty cartel gunmen intercepted and threatened a gubernatorial candidate at gunpoint in the Mexican state of Guerrero forcing him to cancel part of his campaign tour. The attack took place when Luis Walton Aburto, the candidate for Movimiento Ciudadano (Citizen’s Movements) was traveling with his campaign staff and supporters and a group of cartel gunmen stopped them at gunpoint in the town of Chilapa Del Alvarez.

According to prepared statement from Walton Aburto’s campaign staff, the group had been headed to various rallies when they came across the gunmen who had set up a cartel blockade.

“The armed group pointed their weapons at the candidate and the team that was accompanying him amongst them a group of federal agents who had been assigned as the candidate’s security detail, as such the decision was made to cancel the tour,” the statement revealed.

According to Mexico’s Proceso magazine some of the campaign workers held up by gunmen claimed that the cartel gunmen established their blockade with complete impunity. Meanwhile, an entire squad of agents with Mexico’s National Gendarmerie with dozens of police vehicles remained inside a local hotel and were not out patrolling the streets.

Guerrero is a state, as Breitbart Texas previously reported, has been heavily contested between warring cartels that have police and government connections. Guerrero is the same area where police officers and cartel gunmen kidnapped and executed 43 education students only to incinerate their remains which were then thrown into a local river.

The Mexican state is also home to the famous resort town of Acapulco which has not been spared from the violence. As previously reported by Breitbart Texas, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico issued a travel warning last December warning tourists to avoid the area.

Just last week, the town of Chilapa had been the stage of two fierce firefights as cartel gunmen continue to fight for control of lucrative drug production and trafficking territories.

Follow Ildefonso Ortiz on Twitter and on Facebook.

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