Journalists covering Mexico indigenous candidate robbed

[Judi Lynn]

Updated 9:38 pm, Sunday, January 21, 2018

OSTULA, Mexico (AP) — Gunmen in western Mexico have robbed cameras and cellphones from journalists covering a campaign tour by Mexico's indigenous presidential candidate.

Maria de Jesus Patricio, known as "MariChuy," is being supported by the National Indigenous Congress in her bid to get on the July 1 ballot as an independent candidate.

The group wrote in its Twitter account that reporters following the candidate in a convoy were stopped Sunday by armed assailants in two vehicles on a road in Michoacan state. The group says the assailants threatened and robbed the journalists.

The incident occurred in an area where vigilante "self-defense" groups sprang up in 2013 to fight the Knights Templar drug cartel.

Patricio is touring the country trying to gather the 866,000 signatures she needs to get on the ballot.

http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Journalists-covering-Mexico-indigenous-candidate-12514011.php

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