The organizer of a Christmas fair in southern Mexico is assassinated at his holiday event

MEXICO CITY — The organizer of a Christmas fair in southern Mexico was assassinated at his city’s holiday event, authorities said late Tuesday.

The governor of the southern state of Guerrero said gunmen killed the organizer of the annual Christmas and New Year's fair in the state capital of Chilpancingo.

Gov. Evelyn Salgado called the Christmas Eve killing of Martín Ramírez Ruíz “an unacceptable act that will not go unpunished.” Salgado wrote on her social media accounts that state prosecutors were investigating the crime.

There was no immediate information on the motive, but the gangs gain much of their income extorting money from local businesses and routinely kill those who refuse to pay.

In a separate statement, state prosecutors said that another person was killed along with Ramírez Ruíz, and that a third person in the crowd gathered outside a church was wounded in the attack. The gunmen had apparently waded into the crowd and directly targeted Ramírez Ruíz.

Ramírez Ruíz was the head of the civic group that for almost two centuries has organized an arts, food and handicrafts fair that runs from roughly Christmas to Jan. 7. The fair also honors the local patron saint, St. Matthew.

Two rival drug gangs, the Tlacos and the Ardillos, are fighting for control of the city of Chilpancingo, and violence against officials and residents there has reached grisly levels.

In November, a former prosecutor and local police official was arrested in connection with the grisly decapitation of the city's mayor on Oct. 6.

Mayor Alejandro Arcos was killed just a week after he took office as mayor of the state capital. Officials had blamed the killing on one of the gangs.

The mayor's body was found in a pickup truck, with his severed head placed on the roof of the vehicle, in an apparent message from the gang.

The same gang is thought to be responsible for killing 11 market vendors, including four boys, in late October.

The vendors, members of an extended family, were abducted as they traveled to sell their wares. Their bodies were found dumped in the bed of a pickup truck on an avenue in Chilpancingo.

Chilpancingo, a city of about 300,000, is so completely dominated by gangs that in 2023, one of them staged a demonstration of hundreds of people, hijacked a government armored car, blocked a major highway and took police hostage to win the release of arrested suspects.

Violence in Guerrero reached such unprecedented levels that earlier this year, Roman Catholic bishops announced they had helped arrange a truce in another part of the state between two warring drug cartels.

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