Some 60 men riding in luxury vehicles and wearing uniforms of the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI) and armed with AK-47s shot nine people dead at the ranch of Rogaciano Alba Álvarez in Petatlán May 4. Two of Alba's sons were among the dead, and Alba's daughter was also kidnapped, police said. The remaining dead were ranch hands. The previous day, heavily armed gunmen shot seven people dead at a convention of the state Ranching Association (Asociación Ganadera) at a hotel in Iguala.

Alba, who also was targeted in an attack in 2006, was mayor of Petatlán from 1993 to 1995. Local media have linked him to paramilitary groups accused of killing 17 members of a local campesino organization (Aguas Blancas massacre, 1995). Alba has survived two other attacks in the past. (La Jornada, Reuters, AFP, May 4)

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