A couple from the United States was shot dead while visiting the western Mexican state Michoacanwhich has been overrun by a wave of violent crime.
Prosecutors said in a statement Thursday that the couple — identified as Gloria A., 50, and Rafael C., 53 — were traveling in a pickup truck in the municipality of Angamacutiro on Wednesday when they were shot and killed.
The woman died at the scene and the man died of his injuries shortly afterwards at a local hospital, the statement said.
It was not immediately clear why the couple, who were married, were targeted.
A spokeswoman for prosecutors told Reuters that the woman, who had obtained U.S. citizenship, and the man, who was born in the U.S. to Mexican parents, had family and a home in Angamacutiro.
The US State Department told CBS News on Thursday that it was aware of reports of the deaths of two US citizens in Mexico.
“We have no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens abroad,” the department said in a statement. “We are working to gather more information and stand ready to provide consular assistance if necessary. We have no further details to share at this time.
Police officers patrol the state of Michoacan, a part of western Mexico hit hard by organized crime. /Credit: ENRIQUE CASTRO/AFP via Getty Images
Rising violence, much of it linked to drug trafficking, has killed more than 450,000 people in Mexico since 2006, when the government launched an offensive against organized crime.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office in October, has ruled out launching a new “war on drugs,” as the controversial program has been called.
She has pledged to follow her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s “hugs, not bullets” strategy of using social policies to tackle the causes of crime.
Gangs and drug cartels have long infiltrated, intimidated or bribed local officials into working for them. They often went so far as to cut municipal budgets or use local police forces to warn or protect them from federal raids. Sometimes police officers themselves benefit from the drug trade.
Speaking out about cartel corruption can have deadly consequences. Earlier this year, there was a business leader in the state of Tamaulipas shot dead after complaining about cartel extortion in TV interviews. A few weeks earlier, a prominent businesswoman had made similar complaints murdered in the northern border state of Baja California.
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