Chilpancingo, Mexico, May 2 (EFE).- Armed assailants shot and killed a mayoral candidate of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero.

Ulises Fabian Quiroz, a candidate for mayor of the municipality of Chilapa de Alvarez – located 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the state capital of Chilpancingo – in Mexico’s June 7 mid-term elections, was killed Friday afternoon while on the campaign trail.

The candidate was intercepted by gunmen in the town of Atzacoaloya, “forced out of his vehicle, beaten and then shot and killed,” sources with the state’s Attorney General’s Office told Efe.

The candidate’s body was taken to the amphitheater in Chilpancingo, where the autopsy was to be performed.

Chilapa de Alvarez is considered an organized crime hotspot and a drug transshipment stronghold that is being fought over by the Los Ardillos and Los Rojos gangs.

Last week, the Citizens’ Movement party’s candidate for governor of Guerrero, Luis Walton Aburto, was intercepted and held at gunpoint in Chilapa de Alvarez by armed assailants, a crime that prompted the suspension of campaigning in that municipality.

On March 10, Aide Nava Gonzalez, who was in the running to be the left-wing PRD party’s candidate for mayor of Ahuacuotzingo (a municipality near Chilapa de Alvarez), was decapitated by an organized crime gang. EFE