Two opposition members were killed yesterday in the Venezuelan state of Barinas during a campaign rally in support of presidential candidate Henrique Capriles. The incident comes a little over a week before the country’s 7th October elections.

Antonio Valero, aged 32, of the Primero Justicia party and Omar Fernandez, aged 63, an Independent, were members of the Mesa de Unidad Democratica, the coalition of more than 30 political parties backing Capriles.

The two were campaigning in Hugo Chavez’s home state of Barinas, in the west of the country. Their caravan was blocked from proceeding by pro-Chavez supporters, and when they attempted to negotiate a way past they were fired upon by gunmen.

Witnesses say the shots came from a van belonging to the state oil company PDVSA, though this is yet to be confirmed.

In an official statement, the Primero Justicia party said “we denounce all types of violence and express our solidarity with the families of the victims… [T]his tragedy gives us more strength and faith to fight for a Venezuela where justice, not violence, reigns.”

Chavez, who was speaking in Guarenas at the time, did not mention the incident.

Violence has erupted around the campaign before, but this incident marks the first deaths. Stones were thrown by supporters of both candidates earlier this month in the city of Puerto Cabello, and four people were injured in a shooting at an electoral rehearsal in the beginning of September.

The bodies of two Mexican correspondents were found today in a park in Mexico City.

The naked corpses of Ana María Marcela Yarce Viveros and Rocío González Trápaga were found hidden in a park in Iztapalapa, a popular neighbourhood in the capital’s south east.

Yarce Viveros, founder of and reporter for the Mexican weekly Contralínea, was last seen outside the paper’s PR offices. González Trápaga was working as a Television reporter and an independent journalist for the same publication.

The paper’s editorial team called authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Speaking to Radio Fórmula de México this morning, Contralínea’s director Miguel Badillo described the crime as a “terrible act”, perpetrated with “horrific brutality”.

Mexico City’s district attorney Miguel Ángel Mancera reported the deaths had been caused by asphyxiation.

The Federal District’s Comission for Human Rights demanded an immediate and exhaustive investigation to bring those behind the murder to justice

The murders come just a week after the discovery of the body of Humberto Millán in Culiacán, Sinaloa, in the north of the country.

In 2009, the news agency Púlsar reported that Badillo had been detained. A month later, their offices were raided.

The Organisation of American State (OEA) and the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights (CIDH) described Mexico as the most dangerous region to practice journalism in the whole of Latin America.

According to figures released by the Mexico’s National Commission for Human Rights, since 2000, 64 journalists have been murdered, and 11 are missing.

Story Courtesy of Agencia Pulsar