The father of the mayor of the municipality of Azoyú, Guerrero, is shot and killed.

ACAPULCO, GRO. (apro).- Luis Justo Herrera, 75, part of a dynasty of local chieftains in the Costa Chica region and father of Luis Justo Bautista, three-time mayor of Azoyú, was shot to death yesterday afternoon, Thursday, as he left his Los Dos Potrillos ranch, authorities reported. A bodyguard was also shot.

Police reports indicate that the attack occurred at 1:20 p.m. at the Los Dos Potrillos ranch, located across from the El Carrizo intersection on the Juchitán-Azoyú interstate highway.

The rancher was leaving his property accompanied by his driver, who was acting as an escort, when a group of armed men arrived to shoot them.

The crime prompted the state government of Evelyn Salgado Pineda to immediately and unusually announce support for the family and make available personnel from the state Public Security Secretariat and the State Attorney General's Office (FGE).

At night, the FGE reported that it had arrested two men involved in the homicide. They were apprehended on the Azoyú-Juchitán highway, near the town of El Carrizo, and two firearms and a vehicle were seized from them.

At the same time, the governor was in the neighboring municipality of Marquelia at the inauguration of a section of highway.

The president and general secretary of the PRI in Guerrero, Alejandro Bravo Abarca and María del Pilar Vadillo, condemned the murder of "Don Luis Justo Herrera," the father of Luis Justo Bautista, mayor of the municipality of Azoyú.

"In Guerrero, violence and crime have reached every region, affecting us all equally. This uncontrollable crisis that we suffer every day should force authorities and security forces to redouble their efforts to provide certainty to those who go out every day to earn a living," the PRI stated.

Justo Bautista has been a local deputy and three times mayor of Azoyú for the PRI.

In another related incident, on the morning of March 25, Sandra Marín Campos, former president of the DIF (National Institute of the Interior) of the municipality of Azoyú and well-known cattle rancher, was shot to death near her home in Cuajinicuilapa.

Sources consulted reported that Sandra Marín Campos was the wife of Omar Justo Vargas, former PRD mayor of Azoyú from 2009 to 2012, who was shot dead along with his driver on the night of June 7, 2019, on the Acapulco - Pinotepa Nacional highway, near the town of El Sepudo, in the municipality of Ometepec.

Omar Justo Vargas was the son of Lauro Justo Herrera, mayor on three occasions; his uncle was the now deceased Luis Justo Herrera and his cousin Luis Justo Bautista, also mayors of Azoyú.

While Sandra Marín was the niece of the former mayor of Cuajinicuilapa, nominated by Morena, Alejandro Marín Mendoza, in the period 2018 - 2021.

Regional sources identify "Los Justo" as regional chieftains who have held economic and political control over municipalities such as Azoyú, Cuajinicuilapa, Ometepec, and Tlacoachistlahuaca for at least three generations.

They claim that in the late 1980s and early 1990s, they worked in drug trafficking in the Costa Chica region with the Juárez Cartel, then led by Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known as El Señor de los Cielos.

In the article by the Mountain Human Rights Center, Tlachinollan, named Bruno Plácido Valerio, the strategist, published on October 18, 2023, it is stated that the leader of the self-defense groups in Guerrero that fragmented the community police of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities, at the age of five went to work with the wealthy local Luis Justo, where he worked as a cowboy and foreman until the age of 24.

Over the past decade, Bruno Plácido's power as leader of the self-defense groups of the Union of Peoples and Organizations of the State of Guerrero (UPOEG), with the support of the government of then-Governor Ángel Aguirre, spread across a corridor of municipalities in the Centro, Costa Chica, and Acapulco regions. With his leadership weakened and without the control of his commanders, the leader was assassinated on October 17, 2023, in Chilpancingo.