Mexican Mayoral Candidate In Guerrero Found Beheaded

A Mexican woman who was running for mayor in the state of Guerrero, the epicenter of unrest following the disappearance of 43 students last September, was reportedly found decapitated this week. Aidé Nava had been running for mayor on the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party ticket in the small town of Ahuacuotzingo in Guerrero state.

The state prosecutor told local media Wednesday that Nava’s body was found Tuesday evening on a dirt road after she was kidnapped by a group of armed assailants. Local media reported that there was a threatening note also found on her body, reading: “This is what will happen to all the f---ing politicians who do not want to get in line.” It was apparently signed by Los Rojos, one of the most prominent criminal groups in the area.

Nava’s son and husband had both also been victims of violent crime in Guerrero. Her son was kidnapped by a criminal group in 2012 and has not been seen since, and her husband, the former mayor of Ahuacuotzingo, was shot dead last June.

Guerrero is one of Mexico’s most violent states, having registered more than 2,000 homicides in 2014, according to Mexico’s attorney general’s office. It’s the fourth-highest homicide rate out of Mexico’s 31 states.

Ahuacuotzingo is less than 100 miles from Iguala, the Guerrero town where 43 students from a teacher’s training college were last seen in September before disappearing after a confrontation with local police. The government’s theory of the case -- that the Iguala town mayor colluded with police and a local gang to kidnap and kill the students -- has inflamed outrage over the case as Guerrero became the focus of a national conversation on the nexus between security forces and organized crime. The crisis prompted mass protests throughout Mexico as well as the resignations of Guerrero’s governor and the federal prosecutor.