Eight dead in two attacks on Mexican municipal candidates

TUXTLA GUTIÉRREZ: Two attacks against candidates in Mexico's June municipal elections have left eight people dead in the southern state of

Chiapas

, the prosecutor's office in the organized crime-plagued region said Sunday.
The two candidates survived, though one was wounded, in the attacks Saturday night and early Sunday in the municipalities of Villa Corzo and Mapastepec, it said in a statement.

The attacks mark an escalation of violence in Chiapas against politicians intending to seek office in the June 2 vote, when the country's president will also be elected.
Earlier this month, six people, including a minor and mayoral candidate Lucero Lopez, were killed in an ambush after a campaign rally in the municipality of La Concordia, neighboring Villa Corzo.

More than two dozen politicians have been killed since September last year, according to the NGO Data Civica.
Spiraling criminal violence has seen more than 450,000 people murdered in Mexico since the government of then-president Felipe Calderon launched a controversial military offensive against drug cartels in 2006.
The homicide rate has almost tripled to 23 cases per 100,000 inhabitants since then.
Many Mexicans see insecurity as the most urgent challenge for the next government, according to surveys.