MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A Mexican federal judge and his wife were shot dead in the western state of Colima on Tuesday, the attorney general’s office said, as violence continues to convulse the country even amid the coronavirus outbreak.
A group of armed men entered Judge Uriel Villegas’ home in Colima, the state capital, Tuesday morning and shot the couple in front of their two daughters, local media reported.
The attorney general’s office said in a statement it would investigate “the heinous murder” of the judge and his wife.
Earlier this month, the body of a Colima state lawmaker who belonged to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) was found in an unmarked grave a few weeks after she was reported missing.
Colima, which is home to Mexico’s biggest container port on the Pacific coast, has for several years been wracked by bloody turf wars between rival drug gangs. Last year Colima registered the highest homicide rate of any state in Mexico.
Arturo Zaldivar, chief justice of Mexico’s Supreme Court, said the murders “hurt the entire justice system and each and every Mexican,” and urged authorities to guarantee the safety of federal judges and their families.
(Reporting by Ral Corts Fernndez; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Leslie Adler)
