Peruvian mayor shot dead in southern Andes

The Peruvian mayor of Paruro in the south Andean region of Cusco was killed on Tuesday by unidentified hitmen, the national police announced.

The mayor, identified as Ronald Nunez Valdez, was found shot dead in one of the municipality's official trucks.

Preliminary investigations carried out by local police and the public prosecutor's office show the mayor was murdered around 3 a. m. local time. The motive behind the killing remains unknown but the body of the mayor's driver was later found in the nearby neighborhood of Cc'allanca.

The mayor had been missing since being kidnapped on Monday evening. He had been in the company of three workers of the Paruro municipal government, who were beaten and handcuffed by the assailants, according to Peruvian newspaper La Prensa.

A special homicide squad has been dispatched from Cusco to Paruro to investigate the murder. Nunez Valdez is the second mayor to be murdered this year in the south of the country. In March, Alberto Roque Cconislla, mayor of Mara in the province of Cotabambas, was killed as he drove home.

In Peru, political crimes like these have often been linked to political disputes and corruption. More recently, they may have been caused by provincial authorities being subjected to extortion by organized crime gangs. Endite