AN ENTIRE MEXICAN POLICE FORCE ARRESTED FOR OBSTRUCTION.

Showdown with federal officers ahead of election

MEXICO CITY • The entire police force in the Mexican town of Ocampo were disarmed and arrested for allegedly obstructing an investigation into the murder of the mayor ahead of countrywide elections on Sunday.

Fernando Angeles Juarez was killed on Thursday morning after three gunmen broke into the ranch where he lived just as he was preparing to start a day’s campaigning, local media reported.

His party said issued a statement saying that Fernando Angeles Juarez was assassinated, and called on the government to provide protection for people running in the July 1 elections.

Ocampo is a rural township about 150 kilometres west of Mexico City best known for the Monarch butterfly wintering grounds that occupy part of the mountainous municipality. It also been plagued by illegal logging and gangs.

More than 120 politicians have been killed across Mexico since September, when campaigning began ahead of the country’s July 1 general elections.

Voters are being ask to elect more than 3,000 local officials, as well as a new president and legislature.

Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope said that in part, the level of violence against candidates can be explained by “simple mathematics”: There are far more elections being held simultaneously than ever before in Mexico. With more than 3,400 local, state and federal posts at stake, there are more than 15,000 candidates hitting the campaign trail.

“Secondly, this speaks to the changes in criminal groups,” Hope said, noting that drug cartels have expanded into extortion, fuel theft and other crimes. “With the evolution of crime, it becomes much more important to gain control over territory, over local governments.”

Angeles Juarez was the third politician killed in the state of Michoacan in a week. After his murder, Michoacan state forces went to Ocampo on Saturday with a warrant to arrest Oscar Gonzalez, the town’s public security secretary, for questioning, but were forced to retreat when local police officers under his control fired shots into the air. This prompted a second operation in the early hours of Sunday morning that ended with all 27 municipal officers, as well as Gonzalez, in detention. Images on local media showed them lying face-down with their hands handcuffed behind their backs, before they were taken to Morelia, the state capital, for questioning.