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| - Two mayoral candidates have been murdered on the same day in Mexico, their party said -- the latest victims of a spike in political violence ahead of elections scheduled for June. Yuriel Gonzalez, who was vying for office in the Nuevo Casas Grandes municipality in Chihuahua state, was killed on Thursday night, an official of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Alejandro Dominguez, said. He called for a "swift investigation" into the murder. The killing took place hours after another PRI mayoral hopeful, Jose Melquiades Vazquez, was shot dead in the eastern state of Veracruz, the scene of a deadly turf war between rival drug cartels. The murders came despite a pledge by the government on Thursday to boost security for candidates ahead of the June 6 national, regional and local polls. Politicians in the Latin American nation, particularly at the local level, often fall victim to violence connected to corruption and the multi-billion-dollar narcotics trade. The government said on Thursday that at least 64 politicians had been murdered since September. According to the consulting firm Etellekt, 153 politicians were murdered during a particularly bloody campaign for the 2018 elections, and 90 percent of the crimes remain unpunished. yug/dr/sst
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