Local candidate killed in Mexican Caribbean resort town

CANCUN, Mexico – A candidate for city council in the Caribbean resort of Isla Mujeres has died after being shot at a political event, Mexican authorities said Tuesday.

Quintana Roo state prosecutors said Rosely Magana died late Monday, two days after being shot along with another party activist Saturday in the mainland portion of Isla Mujeres north of Cancun.

Magana was a candidate for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party in the July 1 elections.

The risk-analysis firm Etellekt said Magana was the 15th candidate killed in Mexico during this election cycle.

Quintana Roo Gov. Carlos Joaquin condemned the killing. Mayoral candidate Juan Carrillo Soberanis and a member of Magana’s party suggested the killing was politically motivated.

Elsewhere, Mexico’s Education Department said a middle school student had been killed in the border city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas.

The department did not say how ninth-grader Jesus Antonio Hernandez Martinez died. But the department said it would work “to strengthen security at the school building.”

The newspaper El Manana reported the student was playing in the schoolyard Monday when he was hit by a stray bullet from a shootout that occurred near the school.

Reynosa, which is in Tamaulipas state, has been plagued by frequent shootouts between rival factions of the Gulf cartel.

Shootings inside schools remain rare in Mexico, but in April five students were wounded during a kidnap attempt outside a school in another part of Tamaulipas.