{"id":136883,"date":"2024-12-14T09:06:24","date_gmt":"2024-12-14T02:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=136883"},"modified":"2024-12-14T09:06:24","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T02:06:24","slug":"california-couple-killed-in-violent-mexican-town-were-visiting-for-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=136883","title":{"rendered":"California couple killed in violent Mexican town were visiting for holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-element=\"story-body\" data-dateline=\"\" data-subscriber-content=\"\">\n<p> <span class=\"dateline\">MEXICO CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/span> A California couple with Mexican roots went south for the holidays to visit relatives, an annual tradition among many U.S. residents of Mexican ancestry. <\/p>\n<p>But tragedy struck: Both were shot dead in Mexico\u2019s violence-plagued Michoac\u00e1n state, Mexican authorities said Friday. The couple fell victim to the violence that has been pummeling Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>Police were investigating but had no immediate word on a motive or possible suspects, said Magdalena Guzm\u00e1n, a spokeswoman for the state prosecutor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>The two were shot just before midnight Thursday while inside a pickup truck on a road in rural Angamacutiro, a municipality of about 15,000 in northern Michoac\u00e1n.<\/p>\n<p> In the last few months, Angamacutiro has seen its chief of security murdered and an ex-mayor disappeared \u2014 crimes indicative of the violence that has convulsed the western state of Michoac\u00e1n. <\/p>\n<p>The victims of Thursday\u2019s double homicide were identified as Rafael Cardona Aguilera, 53, and his wife, Gloria Ambriz de Cardona, 50, according to authorities and a mourning notice posted on social media. Cardona was the brother-in-law of the town mayor and the couple were staying at the mayor\u2019s residence, the prosecutor\u2019s spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n<p>Cardona was born in the United States and his wife was a naturalized U.S. citizen, Guzm\u00e1n said. <\/p>\n<p>The couple resided in the Sacramento area and arrived in Mexico at the end of November to spend the holidays with relatives, Guzm\u00e1n said.<\/p>\n<p>The wife died at the scene and her spouse succumbed shortly afterward at a hospital, the prosecutor\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday afternoon, a woman answering a relative\u2019s cellphone in California declined to comment. \u201cWe\u2019re in pain,\u201d the woman, who declined to give her name, said before hanging up.<\/p>\n<p>Angamacutiro Mayor Hermes Arnulfo Pacheco Bribiesca, the brother-in-law of the slain Cardona, declined to comment, but the town expressed condolences on social media and sent \u201cthoughts and prayers\u201d to the mourning family. Christmas activities scheduled for this weekend were canceled, a town official said, and a memorial Mass is scheduled for Saturday <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/dec.in\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> in<\/a> honor of the slain couple.<\/p>\n<p>For decades, Michoac\u00e1n, a sprawling region to the west of Mexico City, has been a major source of immigrants settling in California and elsewhere in the United States. Many immigrants traditionally return for the end-of-year holidays to visit loved ones and hometowns throughout Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, Michoac\u00e1n has seen a wave of violence linked to gangs competing for various lucrative rackets, including drug-smuggling, extortion and illegal timber-harvesting.<\/p>\n<p>The state, authorities say, is also a key transit route for precursor chemicals used in the production of U.S.-bound fentanyl, the synthetic opioid, and shipped from China to the Pacific port of L\u00e1zaro C\u00e1rdenas, on the Michoac\u00e1n coast.<\/p>\n<p>Angamacutiro has seen several recent high-profile crimes. <\/p>\n<p>In October,  Lizbeth Estela Romero, the head of security in Angamacutiro, was shot dead outside her home. The town\u2019s ex-mayor, Maribel Ju\u00e1rez Blanquet, disappeared in August and was presumably kidnapped, authorities say. She remains missing. <\/p>\n<p>The ex-mayor\u2019s brother, Erik Ju\u00e1rez Blanquet, a state lawmaker and also a former mayor of Angamacutiro, was shot dead in 2020 when a pair of assassins on a motorcycle opened fire on his vehicle in the state capital of Morelia.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said it was \u201caware\u201d of the shooting of the U.S. couple and was \u201cclosely\u201d tracking developments. \u201cThe safety of U.S. citizens abroad is our first priority and we stand ready to assist in any way possible,\u201d the embassy said, declining to provide further details.<\/p>\n<p><i>Special correspondent Cecilia Sanchez Vidal<\/i><i> and staff writer Andrew J. Campa <\/i><i>contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2024-12-13\/california-couple-killed-in-violent-mexican-town\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MEXICO CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 A California couple with Mexican roots went south for the holidays to visit relatives, an annual tradition among many U.S. residents of Mexican ancestry. But tragedy struck: Both &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=136883\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8629],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=136883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=136883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=136883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=136883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}