MEXICO : Chiapas Gunmen Kill Opposition Members

Gunmen shot and killed two members of an opposition party in the violence-wracked state of Chiapas, villagers said. Sebastian Lopez Lopez and Sebastian Sanchez Lopez, members of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, were shot to death as they walked to their cornfields near Usipa in northern Chiapas. Friends of the victims said the men were killed by paramilitary squads linked to Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. Police blamed the killings on “personal rancor.” One villager, Gilberto Jimenez, said witnesses recognized two of the attackers as members of Peace and Justice, a group opposed to opposition party influence in the area. No members of the group could be located to respond to the allegations.