MEXICO CITY, March 9 (Reuters) – The new minister of tourism
in one of Mexico’s biggest states was shot and killed on
Saturday afternoon in an upscale neighborhood of Guadalajara,
the country’s second most populous city, local officials said.
Jose de Jesus Gallegos, tourism minister for Jalisco, the
home of tequila and Mexico’s mariachi music, was stopped in his
vehicle by armed men and gunned down with a pistol, state
Interior Minister Arturo Zamora told reporters.
Gallegos had been in office only a week in the state, which
President Enrique Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party
recaptured in a 2012 election after 18 years in opposition. The
new state government took office on March 1.
Zamora said the initial investigation suggested the killing
was related to Gallegos’ business activities and had nothing to
do with his government post.
Gallegos was the founder of Jegal Project and Construction
Management, which developed expensive resorts and luxury towers
across Mexico, according to the company website.
Home to 7.5 million people and dominated by Guadalajara,
Jalisco is Mexico’s fourth most populous state, accounting for
roughly 6.5 percent of gross domestic product.
Jalisco’s government has not named any suspects in the
killing of Gallegos, which Pena Nieto condemned in a statement
from his Twitter account, pledging to investigate the crime.
Gang-related killings rose during the 2006-2012 rule of Pena
Nieto’s predecessor, Felipe Calderon, who staked his reputation
on crushing Mexico’s violent drug cartels.
But instead, gang violence worsened, and the number of
homicides in Jalisco rose to about 1,200 in each of the past two
years, from less than 400 in 2007, according to police data.
On taking office last December, Pena Nieto vowed to quell
the lawlessness and killing that have stained Mexico’s image as
a tourist destination and rattled investors.
Guadalajara has seen deepening violence since soldiers
killed drug boss Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel in 2010 in the same
neighborhood of mansions where Gallegos was ambushed. Coronel’s
death fueled turf wars among drug traffickers in the area.
(Reporting by Michael O’Boyle and Dave Graham; Editing by Peter
Cooney)
