By Lizbeth Diaz
MEXICO CITY, Sept 4 - A member of Congress from Mexico's ruling Morena party was found dead from a gunshot wound in the eastern state of Veracruz on Friday, less than a year before local and federal elections.
Zenyazen Escobar, a federal legislator representing the coastal state — home to some of the country’s oil complexes — was found dead inside his car with at least one gunshot wound.
“The investigation file is being compiled,” state Attorney General Lisbeth Jimenez told reporters,
without providing further details.
The secretary general of Veracruz, Ricardo Ahued, said the lawmaker's vehicle showed no signs of violence.
Mexico's lower house of Congress expressed its condolences to Escobar's family and friends and urged judicial authorities to conduct a "thorough investigation into the facts."
The death occurred as the country prepares to hold elections on June 6 to renew mayoral, state legislative, city council and gubernatorial positions.
In previous elections, various regions have experienced incidents of violence linked to organized crime groups seeking to co-opt political figures and consolidate territorial control.
According to the human rights organization Data Civica, in July alone there were at least 30 incidents of "political-criminal violence" across 11 states in Mexico, 14 of which were homicides.
The states with the highest registered cases were Zacatecas, with 10 cases; Michoacan and Quintana Roo, with four each; Oaxaca, with three; and Baja California and Veracruz, with two each.
Data Civica describes political-criminal violence as threats, murders, armed attacks, assassination attempts, disappearances, and kidnappings.
The national electoral body INE has warned that organized crime represents one of the most serious concerns for democratic processes.
According to the INE, court rulings have in the past documented the presence of armed individuals seeking to intimidate or coerce the public into voting a certain way, as well as acts of theft and the burning of election materials.
(Reporting by Lizbeth Díaz; Writing by Raúl Cortés; Editing by Rod Nickel)
