Guatemala mayor killed in bloody election campaign

GUATEMALA CITY, Aug 14 (Reuters) A Guatemalan mayor was shot dead in an apparent political attack on Monday, taking to more than 40 the number of people murdered in the bloodiest election race since the country's civil war ended a decade ago.

Werner Velasquez, mayor of the town of Santa Ana Huista on the border with Mexico, was shot by gunmen as he left the house of a candidate he was backing for a local municipal election taking place alongside the SeptEMBER 9 presidential vote. Two people were wounded in the attack.

''We have to confirm this unfortunate news,'' the governor of the surrounding Huehuetenango department, Mariano Diaz, told Guatemalan radio.

Velasquez, 29, was the latest in a stream of politicians, activists and workers from different parties to be murdered this year as drug traffickers and ex-paramilitaries fight over the elections for president, Congress and municipalities.

Velasquez was the 19th member of presidential favorite Alvaro Colom's National Unity for Hope party (UNE) -- which is struggling to rid its ranks of the influence of organized crime groups and drug gangs -- to be killed since last year.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu's party has suffered at least three gun attacks this month.

Velasquez was elected mayor in 2003 but was not seeking reelection and was supporting Rolando Morales of the rival Grand National Alliance party (GANA) to succeed him.

Guatemala, Central America's most populous nation and one of the most violent countries in the Americas, is still suffering the after-effects of its 1960-1996 civil war, which left nearly a quarter of a million people dead or missing.

Almost 6,000 people were murdered in Guatemala last year in common crime or gang feuds which political scientists blame on civil war era paramilitaries now used by organized criminals.

REUTERS CS ND1030