Analysis-Bloody Mexican election campaign exposes chronic security woes

Forensic investigators work at a scene where assailants left a package and a threat message taped to the gate of the house of Leticia Castillo, a candidate of the Social Encounter Party (PES) for the local congress, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico May 21, 2021. Picture taken May 21, 2021. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Abel Murrieta was handing out campaign flyers on the street this month when a gunman shot him in broad daylight at point-blank range, making him the latest candidate murdered in one of the bloodiest election campaigns in Mexico's recent history.

Running for mayor in mid-term elections on June 6, Murrieta died in Ciudad Obregon, a city in the northern state of Sonora named for former Mexican president Alvaro Obregon, who was himself shot dead in 1928 before he could begin a second term.