San Cristobal - Masked assailants killed the wife of a mayor in Mexico's southern Chiapas state and wounded her son in a highway ambush, the state attorney general's office said.
The San Juan Cancuc Mayor, Mr Lorenzo Hernandez, dismissed rumours that his wife was killed by Zapatista guerrillas, saying it could have been the work of a gang of highway robbers and car thieves operating in the area. Ms Juana Marta Perez Hernandez was driving on a highway between Tenejapa and San Juan Cancuc when she was ambushed on Wednesday, the Chiapas Attorney General, Mr Eduardo Montoya, said.