Mayor killed in Mexican town where 3 Italians disappeared

MEXICO CITY — Gunmen killed the mayor of a town in western Mexico where three Italian men went missing in late January, the Jalisco state prosecutors’ office said Tuesday.

Assailants wielding rifles gunned down the mayor of Tecalitlan and wounded a municipal worker in the attack Monday.

The missing Italians are Raffaele Russo, his 25-year-old son Antonio Russo and his 29-year-old nephew Vincenzo Cimmino, all from the Naples area.

Several municipal police officers were arrested in February in connection with their disappearance. Authorities said the agents apparently handed the men over to a criminal gang and they have not been heard from since.

More than 60 mayors or mayors-elect have been killed in Mexico since 2006, often by criminal gangs.

On Tuesday afternoon, gunmen in the central state of Guanajuato killed three state police officers in an ambush.

The state security office said in a statement that police were responding to a report of gunshot victims along the highway between Jerecuaro and Apaseo el Alto near the community of Estanzuela de Romero.

Gunmen in multiple vehicles attacked the officers. Authorities said they did not have information about how many attackers were wounded or killed. /kga