Gunmen abduct newly-elected MP in Mexico

A newly-elected member of Mexico’s parliament has been kidnapped at gunpoint in the latest violent incident linked to the country’s recent elections.

Congresswoman-elect Azucena Rodriguez Zamora, who has been elected to the lower house of Mexico’s Congress for the eastern state of Veracruz, was abducted on Tuesday, when gunmen riding in a vehicle opened fire on her car driving on a highway in the state of Hidalgo, AFP reported, citing an unnamed police source.

The source added that the shooting caused the vehicle carrying Rodriguez and two others to flip over on the highway, injuring the occupants.

According to the source, the gunmen then pulled Rodriguez from the overturned car and kidnapped her, marking the second such abduction in the state in recent days.

The mayor of the town of Naupan in Puebla State had earlier been kidnapped at gunpoint on a Hidalgo highway and was later found dead.

AFP cited consulting firm Etellekt as saying that at least 152 Mexican politicians had been assassinated in the run-up to the elections held on July 1.

The election-linked murders of mostly local-level politicians — the prime targets of Mexico’s notorious drug cartels — were recorded between last September, when candidate registration began, and election day. It was described as by far the most violent poll on record in the Central American nation.

The development came as Mexico also officially registered a record number of murders across the country — 28,711 — for last year, and is reportedly on track to breaking the unprecedented record yet again in 2018.

Violence has surged even further across Mexico since the federal government deployed the military in 2006 to battle narcotics trafficking. More than 200,000 have been killed and 30,000 gone missing since then, nevertheless.

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