Mexican police launch search for kidnapped politician

MEXICAN security forces are searching for a newly elected congresswoman who was kidnapped at gunpoint by armed men on a highway in the central state of Hidalgo.

Norma Azucena Rodríguez Zamora, 32, was travelling with her driver and assistant when at least two gunmen opened fire, causing her vehicle to flip over and injuring the staff members. The men dragged out the congresswoman and forced her into their car.

Ms Rodríguez was due to take office on Sept 1 as a congresswoman for the Left-wing PRD party in the neighbouring state of Veracruz, a hotbed of drug cartel activity that has suffered some of the worst violence in the country in recent years.

The ambush took place on the same highway where Genaro Negrete Urbano, a mayor from the nearby state of Puebla, was kidnapped in July. He was later shot dead and his body was found earlier this month.

The kidnap of Ms Rodríguez is the latest act of violence surrounding Mexico’s July elections. At least 48 candidates were murdered in the run-up to the landmark vote, in which Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a veteran Leftist, secured a decisive victory with promises of change after decades of almost exclusive one-party rule.

Mr López Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, ran in two presidential elections as the candidate for the PRD before leaving the party to form his own political movement, Morena.

Previously dismissed by many as a populist, Mr López came to represent the hopes of Mexicans angered by corruption and organised crime.

The outgoing ruling party, the PRI, governed Mexico for 90 years, except from 2000 to 2012, when the centreright PAN took office.

Enrique Peña Nieto, the current president, pledged to calm the drug conflict but under his tenure violence has increased. With almost 30,000 murders, 2017 was the deadliest on record, but 2018 is on course to pass that.