Guerrero: Election for governor grows nastier with kidnap of Aguirre campaign

The most recent developments in Guerrero, ahead of the gubernatorial elections by the end of this month, are extremely worrisome:  Miguel Jaimes Palacios, former mayor of San Miguel Totolapan in the Tierra Caliente region  and the campaign manager of left coalition candidate Ángel Aguirre Rivero in that area, was reported kidnapped by armed men. 

Yes, the Tierra Caliente region, close to Michoacán, is a violence-ridden area, but I find it hard to believe this is not connected to the ever-more-bitter campaign between  Ángel Aguirre and the PRI candidate Manuel Añorve Baños. 

PRI, meanwhile, expelled 11 high-profile party members, including a federal deputy, six local state legislators, and four muncipals councilor, from the party. The PRI's national excetutive committe (CEN) accused them of backing Aguirre. a former priísta. 

The local legislators are: Jorge Salgado Parra, Ricardo Moreno Arcos, Silvia Romero Suárez, Marco Antonio Cabada Arias, Efrén López Cortés, and  Manuel Saidi Pratts, who have left the PRI's state congress faction and declared themselves "independent." The federal deputy now kicked out of the PRI is Sofío Ramírez Hernández. 

In Guerrero, ahead of the Jan. 30 contest, I fear the worst of confrontations and political violence is yet to come.