With a warrant in hand, Michoacán state forces went to Ocampo on Saturday to arrest the town’s public security secretary Oscar González, but were unsuccessful in their attempt since the officers under González control started firing shots at the state forces.
A second operation was taken in effect on Sunday morning that ended with all the officers, as well as González, in detention.
The reason the operation commenced by the state forces was due to the recent murders happening in the area of politicians.
Fernando Angeles Juárez, 64, lived in Ocampo which has a population of around 24,000 and is located about 95 miles west of Mexico City. He was running apart of the Democratic Revolution Party.
The latest slaying happened when three gunmen broke into the ranch of Juárez this past Thursday morning and murdered him as he was preparing to start his day of campaigning. He was the third politician killed in the state of Michoacán this week.
He was a mayoral candidate for Mexico’s upcoming election on the first of July that has 3,400 open seats.
Since the election process started in September of last year, the country has faced an unprecedented wave of political violence with over 100 politicians murdered and 8 journalist killed.
The town’s police force is one of many accused of being involved in corruption as Mexico attempts to fight drug cartels. In Mexico, drug cartels are not just filled with gang members, but gang members that have background and connections in the military and police departments using the connections to commit kidnappings and murders at the cartels’ behest.
A report was recently done on the political violence stating that 72 percent of the violence targeting opposition candidates.
Officials believe the reason behind the violence is so gangs can keep their hands in politics by putting people they want in office.
They were taken to the state capitol by the states Internal Affairs Department and questioned “in the event anyone has taken part in acts that violate the town’s codes.”
Political aide and close friend, Miguel Malagón, told local media that the candidate had not received any threats of violence prior to his murder, according to Telegraph.
Janine Madeline Otalora Malissis, a national election official called these killings as premeditated and despicable way to decide who should be on the election ballot, according to New York Daily News.