CANCUN, MEXICO: Nine people have been
killed when a plane belonging to a politician running for governor in a Mexican
state crashed on Sunday, his staff said.
But Roberto Borge, the
powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)'s candidate for governor in the
state of Quintana Roo, was not aboard at the time, said spokesman Gabriel
Mendicutti.
"There were nine people, unfortunately all dead," said
Mendicutti. "Roberto Borge was not aboard but we have found the
airplane."
Borge is running for office as part of a coalition along
with two smaller parties, the Mexican Green Ecology party (PVEM) and the New
Alliance party (PANAL).
On Sunday Borge campaigned in rural towns in
southern Quintana Roo -- a Mexican state on the eastern side of the Yucatan
peninsula -- then flew to the resort town of Cancun, said Mario Castro, a
regional campaign coordinator.
Elections are set for July 4 for state
governors in 14 Mexican states, including Quintana Roo, amid a wave of violence
from battling rival drug cartels.
Borge leads in surveys ahead of the
vote, bolstered by the withdrawal of leftist candidate Gregorio Sanchez, charged
with links to drug traffickers.
Campaign officials did not say if
they knew why the airplane crashed, or if they suspected foul
play.