Image copyright AFP Image caption Mr Ángeles was murdered outside his home on Thursday morning

The entire police force of the Mexican town of Ocampo has been detained on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a mayoral candidate.

Fernando Ángeles Juárez, 64, was shot dead by unknown gunmen on Thursday outside one of his properties.

More than 100 politicians have been killed across Mexico ahead of general elections on 1 July.

Mr Ángeles was the third politician to be killed in the western state of Michoacán in just over a week.

The town's 27 police officers and the local public security secretary were detained by federal forces in the early hours of Sunday.

'He couldn't stand corruption'

Mr Ángeles was a successful businessman with little previous political experience.

He had considered standing as an independent but eventually joined one of Mexico's main parties, the centre-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

"He couldn't stand seeing so much poverty, inequality and corruption and so he decided to run," one of his closest friends, Miguel Malagón, told El Universal newspaper.

After his murder, prosecutors accused Ocampo's public security secretary, Oscar González García, of involvement.

When Mexican federal agents arrived in the town on Saturday to detain him, they were stopped by local police officers.

They returned with reinforcements on Sunday morning and arrested the entire force and their boss.

They were handcuffed and taken for questioning in the state capital, Morelia.

Prosecutors accuse the officers and Mr González of links with organised crime groups in the state.

Mexicans will go to the polls next Sunday to choose a new president, senators and members of the Chamber of Deputies.

More than 3,000 posts at regional and local levels will also be at stake.</s>Days after the slaying of a mayoral candidate, state authorities in Michoacán, Mexico, detained a town’s entire police force for questioning.

A convoy of more than 80 patrols descended on the town of Ocampo, about 100 miles west of Mexico City, in a surprise arrest operation, according to local news outlets. Photos show the entire Ocampo police force — nearly 30 officers in total — lined up against a wall with their hands behind their backs.

The police agency, including its director, were taken into custody as part of an “internal investigation” into possible violations of codes of conduct, Michoacán state police said in a statement. Mexican news outlets said the officers were detained on suspicion of possible involvement or “complicity” in the murder of a local mayoral candidate last week.

The officers were all disarmed and transferred to an internal affairs unit, state police said.

The day before, authorities had tried unsuccessfully to detain the head police official in Ocampo, Óscar González García, confiscating his weapon and cellphone, according to Milenio. But local police officers stepped in the way, with the help of civilians, to protest the arrest.

A brawl ensued in the town’s central plaza. Videos show police officers shouting and hitting each other, releasing tear gas and exchanging gunfire. “Why are they taking him away?” one man is heard yelling over the sound of gunshots.

State authorities retreated, given the “tense” situation and to prevent worse clashes, according to La Voz de Michoacán. But they returned at dawn on Sunday to detain the Ocampo police force in its entirety.

While Michoacán state police offered no link publicly to a specific crime, Mexican news outlets said the police officers were detained in connection with the assassination of a mayoral candidate in the upcoming July 1 elections, Fernando Ángeles Juárez, who is aligned with the leftist Democratic Revolution Party.

On Thursday, Ángeles Juárez was found dead inside a hotel he owned in Ocampo, according to the state attorney general’s office. Prosecutors on Monday announced they had apprehended three men in connection with the killing. His party issued a statement condemning the killing and calling on the government to protect political candidates running in the upcoming elections.

Angeles Juárez is one of dozens of political candidates killed amid a surge in homicides across Mexico. Since the election process began in September of last year, an estimated 130 politicians have been killed, according to Etellekt, a risk analysis consultancy.

In the same state of Michoacán, two other mayoral candidates were found dead over the course of a week. On June 14, a candidate for mayor in Taretan was found gunned down. And in the rural town of Aguililla, independent mayoral candidate Omar Gomez Lucatero was shot and killed, according to El Pais.

Ahead of the July 1 elections, more than 15,000 political candidates are campaigning for more than 3,400 local, state and federal positions, according to The Associated Press.

As state police forces arrived in Ocampo Sunday to arrest local police officers, one journalist alleged that he was detained while reporting in a live broadcast. Ricardo Rangel, a journalist with Quadratín, said authorities confiscated his camera and forced him to unlock his cellphone. They proceeded to erase several photographs and other information on the device, including credit card details, Rangel told his news outlet.

While the internal investigation into the Ocampo police force continues, the municipality is under the control of the state police.

Ocampo residents told news reporters that the arrests had broken their trust in local law enforcement.

“We no longer trust the police,” one woman told Telemundo. “We don’t know who they’re with. We feel insecure.”</s>Mexican authorities have arrested the entire police force from the town of Ocampo on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a mayoral candidate, according to local media.

State authorities issued a statement on Sunday saying all 28 members of Ocampo's municipal police department had been taken in for questioning by the police's internal affairs department.

Local and national media said the officers were held on suspicion of complicity in the killing of Fernando Angeles Juarez, who was running for mayor of Ocampo.

Juarez, a member of the centre-left Party of the Democratic Revolution, was shot dead last Thursday.

Ocampo, a town of 24,000, is set to elect a new mayor on July 1, alongside the country's presidential elections.

In total, more than 3,400 political posts are up for grabs across the country.

The run-up to those elections have been the bloodiest in Mexico's recorded history, with dozens of politicians, journalists and activists killed.

In total, at least 113 politicians have been killed between September 2017 and May 2018, according to research done by risk analysis company Etellekt.

Many of the political killings have taken place at the municipal or state level.

Violence has long been a big problem in Mexico, with violent drug cartels battling for territory for years.

Last year was the country's most violent on record, with more than 23,000 homicides in total.

Mexico's government deployed thousands of federal police officers earlier this year in an attempt to combat the surge in mostly drug-related violence.</s>OCAMPO, Mexico — The entire police force of a Mexican town in the state of Michoacán is being questioned in the assassination of a mayoral candidate, the office of the state’s attorney general told CNN on Monday.

Fernando Angeles Juarez of the Party of the Democratic Revolution was killed Thursday morning by unknown gunmen.

On Saturday, Michoacán State Police went to Ocampo to question 28 municipal officers in a routine check unrelated to Juárez’s death, the law enforcement agency said on Sunday. When they arrived, some of those officers fired shots in the air and resisted their authority, Michoacán State Police said. The agency said all 28 officers were detained on Sunday.

On Monday, the Michoacán State Attorney General’s Office confirmed that the officers are now under investigation in Juárez’s death.

Mexico is due to go to the polls on July 1 to pick its next president as well as hundreds of federal, state and municipal positions.

Juarez was one of two aspiring politicians killed in the western state of Michoacán in less than 24 hours. Omar Gomez Lucatero, an independent candidate for mayor of Agulilla, was shot dead on Wednesday afternoon.

The Mexico Attorney General’s Office said it is leading the investigations into the two candidates’ deaths.</s>MEXICO CITY — State police have detained and disarmed the entire police force of a town in western Mexico where a mayoral candidate was killed on Thursday.

Video of the detention aired by local media showed uniformed officers hitting each other as gunshots go off in the background.

The Michoacán state police force said “all the officers of the Ocampo municipal police force were detained for [an] internal affairs investigation.”

In statements on its Twitter account Sunday, the state police department did not directly tie the detentions to the Thursday killing of Fernando Angeles Juarez, the mayoral candidate for the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. He was killed in Ocampo, Michoacán on Thursday.

Mexican soldiers guard the funeral of Ocampo municipality Mayor and candidate for the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), Fernando Angeles, in Ocampo, Michoacan State, Mexico, on June 21, 2018.Raul Tinoco / AFP – Getty Images

Angeles Juárez’s is just one of at least 18 candidates killed so far in campaigns leading up to the July 1 elections. Just last week, another mayoral candidate was also gunned down last week in the conflict-ridden rural town of Aguililla in the western state of Michoacan.

Michoacán Gov. Silvano Aureoles vowed to catch those responsible for killing candidate Omar Gómez Lucatero.

Almost all of the 18 candidates killed across the country so far have been running for local posts in the July 1 elections, which will also decide the presidency, governorships and Congress. Other politicians who were considering a run have been killed before they could even register as candidates. The killings have particularly hit states like Michoacán, Guerrero and Oaxaca.

Ocampo, all 28 police officers, were detained after participating in a revolt when they prevented the arrest of the director of Public Security who will be investigated for his probable responsibility in the killing of the candidate Fernando Angeles Juarez.Ivan Villanueva / EPA

Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope said that in part, the level of violence against candidates can be explained by “simple mathematics:” There are far more elections being held simultaneously than ever before in Mexico. With more than 3,400 local, state and federal posts at stake, there are more than 15,000 candidates hitting the campaign trail.

“Secondly, this speaks to the changes in criminal groups,” Hope said, noting that drug cartels have expanded into extortion, fuel theft and other crimes. “With the evolution of crime, it becomes much more important to gain control over territory, over local governments.”

In crimes like fuel theft, for example, local police can be valuable allies to act as look outs or cover up for illegal pipeline taps and illicit fuel warehouses. And some gangs have even taken to extorting money from local governments by forcing them to sign inflated public works contracts.

Those concerns could lead the gangs to kill a candidate who rivals their favorite, or to kill candidates who refuse their demands.

Finally, Hope noted, “there has been a breakdown in the management of disputes,” largely in rural areas, where turf wars between rival gangs have heated up, even as the government has become over-extended and less able to intervene.</s>A Mexican town’s entire police force has been arrested in connection with the slaying of a mayoral candidate.

The 28 officers from the town of Ocampo in the western state of Michoacan were arrested Sunday on suspicion of involvement in the murder of Fernando Angeles Juarez.

Juarez, 64, was running as the candidate for the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution in Ocampo, before being shot dead June 21.

State officials took the cops in for having alleged ties with criminal groups possibly involved in the candidate’s killing, El Universal reported.

Public Security Director Venancio Colin was chased out by 16 Ocampo cops in a hail of bullets when he first tried to arrest them Saturday, sources told the paper.

He came back Sunday with reinforcements and arrested the entire force, who were cuffed and taken to the state capital for questioning.

Juarez, a successful businessman with little previous political experience, was the third politician to be killed in Michoacan in just over a week, the BBC reported.

“He couldn’t stand seeing so much poverty, inequality and corruption and so he decided to run,” one of his closest friends, Miguel Malagón, told El Universal.

Mexico will vote for a new president July 1, alongside more than 3,000 federal, state and municipal posts.

More than 1,000 candidates have dropped out of local races ahead of the elections because they fear being gunned down.

Drug cartels are suspected in many murders of politicians and the 2018 campaign has been a bloody one — with dozens of politicians, candidates and activists murdered by gangsters.

On June 12, congressional candidate Fernando Purón was shot in the head point-blank as he posed for a selfie after an election debate in Piedras Negras.</s>The entire police force of the town of Ocampo, situated in Mexico’s Guanajuato State, were arrested over the weekend by agents from the internal affairs (IA) department in connection to the murder of a mayoral candidate, The Independent reported on Monday.

READ MORE: Two Killed in Shooting at Mexico Top University

All 28 officers of Ocampo’s police force remain in detention, as the investigation into the death of Fernando Angeles Juarez continues, local media reported.

Authorities have not confirmed that their detention is indeed in connection to the mayoral candidate’s death – they’ve only said that the arrests were made as they look into “potential violations of the police code of conduct.”

On July 1, democratic proceedings to elect Mexico’s president for the next term, in addition to numerous other positions throughout the country at various levels of government, will take place.

Mr. Juarez was the local candidate for the leftwing Democratic Revolution Party, and in the aftermath of his death, the party warned that he had been assassinated and urged the Mexican government to ensure the protection of candidates in the upcoming elections.

The victim’s public security secretary has also been linked to his death, and after local police prevented federal agents from arresting him over the weekend, they returned with reinforcements and arrested the town’s entire police force, and launched an investigation.

Gangs have murdered dozens of activists and politicians in the run-up to the elections, making it the bloodiest in Mexico’s modern history.

READ MORE: Caravan of Migrants Reach US Border, Temporarily Rejected by Patrol</s>State police have detained and disarmed the entire police force of the Mexican town of Ocampo, where a mayoral candidate was killed last week ahead of general elections.

Video of the detention aired by local media showed uniformed officers hitting each other as gunshots go off in the background.

State authorities issued a statement on Sunday saying all members of Ocampo's municipal police department had been taken in for questioning by the police's internal affairs department.

The probe focused on potential violations of the police code of conduct, the statement said, without giving more details.

Local and national media said the officers were held on suspicion of complicity in the killing of Fernando Angeles Juarez, who was running for mayor of Ocampo, which lies on the eastern fringe of the state of Michoacan and is home to around 24,000 people.

A source in the state familiar with the investigation said the media reports about the arrests were correct. Twenty-eight police were detained in the operation, the source added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Mexico will vote for a new president on July 1 alongside hundreds of other federal, state and municipal posts.

The 2018 election campaign has been the bloodiest in Mexico's modern history with dozens of politicians, candidates and activists murdered by criminal groups and gangsters seeking to influence the shape of the post-electoral map.</s>The entire police force in the Mexican town of Ocampo were disarmed and arrested for allegedly obstructing an investigation into the murder of the mayor ahead of country-wide elections on Sunday.

Fernando Angeles Juárez was killed on Thursday morning after three gunmen broke into the ranch where he lives just as he was preparing to start a day's campaigning, local media reported.

Over 120 politicians have been killed across Mexico since September, when campaigning began ahead of the country’s July 1 general elections. Voters are being ask to elect over 3,000 local officials, as well as a new president and a new legislature.

Mr Angeles Juárez was the third politician killed in the state of Michoacán in a week.

After his murder, Michoacán state forces went to Ocampo on Saturday with a warrant to arrest the town’s public security secretary Oscar González for questioning, but were forced to retreat when local police officers under his control fired shots into the air.</s>MEXICO CITY — State police have detained and disarmed the entire police force of a town in western Mexico where a mayoral candidate was killed on Thursday.

Video of the detention aired by local media showed uniformed officers hitting each other as gunshots go off in the background.

The Michoacán state police force said, "All the officers of the Ocampo municipal police force were detained for an internal affairs investigation."

In statements on its Twitter account Sunday, the state police department did not directly tie the detentions to the Thursday killing of Fernando Ángeles Juárez, the mayoral candidate for the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. He was killed in Ocampo, Michoacán, on Thursday.

Ángeles Juárez is just one of at least 18 candidates killed so far in campaigns leading up to the July 1 elections. Just last week, another mayoral candidate was also gunned down in the conflict-ridden rural town of Aguililla in Michoacán.

Michoacán Gov. Silvano Aureoles vowed to catch those responsible for killing candidate Omar Gómez Lucatero.

Almost all of the 18 candidates killed across the country so far have been running for local posts in the July 1 elections, which will also decide the presidency, governorships and Congress. Other politicians who were considering a run have been killed before they could even register as candidates. The killings have particularly hit states like Michoacán, Guerrero and Oaxaca.

Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope said that in part, the level of violence against candidates can be explained by “simple mathematics”: There are far more elections being held simultaneously than ever before in Mexico. With more than 3,400 local, state and federal posts at stake, there are more than 15,000 candidates hitting the campaign trail.

“Secondly, this speaks to the changes in criminal groups,” Hope said, noting that drug cartels have expanded into extortion, fuel theft and other crimes. “With the evolution of crime, it becomes much more important to gain control over territory, over local governments.”

In crimes like fuel theft, for example, local police can be valuable allies to act as lookouts or cover up for illegal pipeline taps and illicit fuel warehouses. And some gangs have even taken to extorting money from local governments by forcing them to sign inflated public works contracts.

Those concerns could lead the gangs to kill a candidate who rivals their favorite, or to kill candidates who refuse their demands.

Finally, Hope noted, “there has been a breakdown in the management of disputes,” largely in rural areas, where turf wars between rival gangs have heated up, even as the government has become overextended and less able to intervene.
Mexican authorities arrest the entire police force of Ocampo, Michoacán, on suspicion of murdering a mayoral candidate.