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Gunmen slay former Mexico state governor -media

by (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. Click For Restrictions. http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Sunday, 21 November 2010 19:06 GMT

MEXICO CITY, Nov 21 (Reuters) - The former governor of the Mexican Pacific coast state of Colima was gunned down in his home on Sunday morning, Mexican media reported, citing sources from the state prosecutors' office.

Jesus Silverio Cavazos, who left office in November 2009, died of his wounds after being rushed to a hospital. His wife was also reported wounded in the attack.

A spokesman for the Colima state prosecutors' office was not immediately available for comment.

Mexican regional politicians have been increasingly targeted by assassins in states that are home to drug gangs and major smuggling routes as rival gangs battle for control of the lucrative business.

Gunmen murdered the front-runner in the campaign for the governor's job in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas in June in the highest-profile political assassination in Mexico linked to drug gangs.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has staked his presidency on crushing the country's powerful drug gangs and has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers to combat the heavily armed cartels.

The fighting between security forces and drug gangs, as well as clashes between rival cartels, has killed more than 31,000 people since Calderon took office in late 2006, rattling foreign investors and Washington, which worries the violence could spill across the border into the United States. (Reporting by Robert Campbell and Luis Rojas Mena; Editing by Vicki Allen)

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