IN THE FACE OF DANGER, PAN BOWS OUT OF ELECTION CAMPAIGNS

El Universal
In the face of pressure from organized crime, the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) will not require candidates for the mayorships of the three north Tamaulipas cities of Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, Camargo and Ciudad Mier to campaign publicly and instead will merely list the candidates but will not ask them to campaign to protect their lives.
The new policy by the PAN leadership follows the daylight murder of Luis Mario Guajardo Varela, the candidate for the mayorship of Valle Hermoso, Tamaulipas, his 21-year-old son Luis Mario Guajardo, and his driver Fernando Treviño at his business Thursday morning.
First reports indicate that the victims had just arrived to Varela's business, Promovedora Agrícola Guajardo, when they were gunned down by two men weilding 9mm handguns.
In a telephone interview by Universal with Francisco Javier Garza de Coss, president of PAN's Executve Committee, he said the party cannot ask them to run since it cannot protect them.
Garza de Coss told the newspaper that it has been difficult to convince candidates to run for the positions, and said party officials will interview potential candidates in cities in the United States.
Being that "for them (candidates) it will be very difficult, we won't ask them to risk it, seeing how it is an uncontrollable state, even if the PRI governor (Eugenio Hernández) won't recognize it, the entire state is out of control, especially in these town that have become without law."