Mayoral Candidate Fatally Shot in Restive Mexico State

A Mexican political party says one of its members running for mayor in a town in the restive state of Michoacan was shot to death during a political rally. It was the second killing of a candidate in western Mexico this month heading into the country's midterm elections June 7.

The leftist Morena party confirmed the Thursday night killing of Enrique Hernandez, who was running for mayor in Yurecuaro.

Hernandez was a leader of the town's "self-defense force," which was among the vigilante groups that sprang up in 2013 to break the power of the Knights Templar drug cartel in Michoacan.

Earlier in May, Ulises Fabian Quiroz was fatally shot while running for mayor of Chilapa in the adjacent state of Guerrero. He represented the Institutional Revolutionary Party-Green Party coalition.