Small-town mayor killed in southern Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Prosecutors in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca said Thursday that the mayor of the small Pacific-coast town of Chahuites was killed by unidentified assailants.

The state prosecutor’s office said Mayor Leobardo Ramos Lázaro was found shot to death in a vehicle early Thursday.

Dozens of Mexican mayors have been murdered in recent years, and the killings have sometimes been carried out by drug gangs and corrupt police.

The area, near the border with the neighbouring state of Chiapas, is near a route frequently used by immigrant smugglers. But the area has also been fraught by land and political disputes. Prosecutors did not mention any possible motive in the killing