Mexico - Leader of Leftist Party Is Fatally Shot - NYTimes.com The leader of Mexico's main leftist party in the southern state of Oaxaca has been found slain, little more than a week before local elections. The Oaxaca attorney general's office said the body of Nicolas Estrada Merino, 32, was found Thursday in a sugar cane field near the city of Tuxtepec. It said in a statement that Mr. Estrada had three gunshot wounds to the head. The national leadership of his Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, condemned the killing and demanded that the authorities conduct the investigation quickly. They would not say if they thought his killing was election-related.