MEXICO CITY — State police have detained and disarmed the entire police force of a town in western Mexico where a mayoral candidate was killed on Thursday.

Video of the detention aired by local media showed uniformed officers hitting each other as gunshots go off in the background.

The Michoacán state police force said “all the officers of the Ocampo municipal police force were detained for [an] internal affairs investigation.”

In statements on its Twitter account Sunday, the state police department did not directly tie the detentions to the Thursday killing of Fernando Angeles Juarez, the mayoral candidate for the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. He was killed in Ocampo, Michoacán on Thursday.

Mexican soldiers guard the funeral of Ocampo municipality Mayor and candidate for the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), Fernando Angeles, in Ocampo, Michoacan State, Mexico, on June 21, 2018.Raul Tinoco / AFP – Getty Images

Angeles Juárez’s is just one of at least 18 candidates killed so far in campaigns leading up to the July 1 elections. Just last week, another mayoral candidate was also gunned down last week in the conflict-ridden rural town of Aguililla in the western state of Michoacan.

Michoacán Gov. Silvano Aureoles vowed to catch those responsible for killing candidate Omar Gómez Lucatero.

Almost all of the 18 candidates killed across the country so far have been running for local posts in the July 1 elections, which will also decide the presidency, governorships and Congress. Other politicians who were considering a run have been killed before they could even register as candidates. The killings have particularly hit states like Michoacán, Guerrero and Oaxaca.

Ocampo, all 28 police officers, were detained after participating in a revolt when they prevented the arrest of the director of Public Security who will be investigated for his probable responsibility in the killing of the candidate Fernando Angeles Juarez.Ivan Villanueva / EPA

Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope said that in part, the level of violence against candidates can be explained by “simple mathematics:” There are far more elections being held simultaneously than ever before in Mexico. With more than 3,400 local, state and federal posts at stake, there are more than 15,000 candidates hitting the campaign trail.

“Secondly, this speaks to the changes in criminal groups,” Hope said, noting that drug cartels have expanded into extortion, fuel theft and other crimes. “With the evolution of crime, it becomes much more important to gain control over territory, over local governments.”

In crimes like fuel theft, for example, local police can be valuable allies to act as look outs or cover up for illegal pipeline taps and illicit fuel warehouses. And some gangs have even taken to extorting money from local governments by forcing them to sign inflated public works contracts.

Those concerns could lead the gangs to kill a candidate who rivals their favorite, or to kill candidates who refuse their demands.

Finally, Hope noted, “there has been a breakdown in the management of disputes,” largely in rural areas, where turf wars between rival gangs have heated up, even as the government has become over-extended and less able to intervene. </s> En estos momentos Mauricio Vila Dosal asume la gubernatura del Estado en una solemne ceremonia en el teatro José Peón Contreras, ante la presencia de varios gobernadores y de representantes de los presidentes en funciones, Enrique Peña Nieto, y electo, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

De esta manera el teatro provisionalmente se convierte en la sede del Poder Legislativo. </s> MEXICO CITY -- Mexican independent presidential candidate Maria de Jesus Patricio was injured in a road crash that also killed a person riding in her caravan and injured two others Wednesday.

The National Indigenous Council said in a brief statement that a vehicle carrying Patricio and 10 other people went off a highway in the state of Baja California Sur.

The group said a woman it did not identify was killed and council member Francisco Grado was in serious condition. Patricio and council member Lucero Islava also had injuries, the statement said, but gave no details.

The newspaper La Jornada published a photo of emergency workers assisting Patricio as she walked next to an ambulance and a picture of a white van resting on its roof in a desert countryside. The paper said Patricio's left arm was broken.

Patricio, a Nahua indigenous healer from Jalisco state known popularly as "Marichuy," has been running as an independent candidate seeking to get a place on the July 1 presidential ballot.

However, days before a deadline to gather some 866,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot, she is well short of the requirement.
Mauricio Vila Dosal takes office as Governor of the Mexican state of Yucatán.