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Mexico shooting casts shadow on election campaign
By Alistair Bell
Updated: 1:38 p.m. ET June 6, 2006
MEXICO CITY - Mexico's presidential race was rattled on Tuesday when gunmen opened fire on the family of a businessman at the center of a corruption scandal in 2004 that hurt leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

No one was injured in the attack on a car carrying the wife and three children of Carlos Ahumada, an Argentine who was filmed giving bundles of money to former mayor Lopez Obrador's main ally in the City Council over two years ago.Mexico's peso currency dropped in early trading, partly due to unease over a tight electoral race and the shooting.

Ahumada, who is in jail awaiting trial for fraud in a separate case, said earlier this week he would produce videos on Tuesday showing that one of Lopez Obrador's allies, Horacio Duarte, was corrupt. Duarte has denied any wrongdoing.

Lopez Obrador's popularity dipped two years ago when Mexican television showed a video of Ahumada giving what appeared to be a bribe to another of his allies, Rene Bejarano, a senior member in the capital of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution.

No one was ever convicted in the case, although Lopez Obrador's critics say prosecutors close to the candidate handled the case and never investigated it thoroughly.

The shooting and potential release of more damaging videos comes as polls show Lopez Obrador and conservative Felipe Calderon in a dead heat for the July 2 vote. After months of nasty campaigning, the last televised candidates' debate is set for Tuesday evening.

SHOOTING ON WAY TO SCHOOL

Ahumada's wife Cecilia Gurza was taking her children to school in an armored, chauffeur-driven SUV when gunmen opened fire on the vehicle in a cobble-stoned street in a smart neighborhood of the city.

Television pictures showed the car sitting in the street with bullet impacts on the driver's side window.

"We are just beginning the investigation. There are seven 9 mm shells," the capital's chief prosecutor Bernardo Batiz told reporters.

Ahumada's wife said she doubted the capital's police would clear up the shooting quickly. "I have no faith in Mexico City's attorney-generals' office," she told Mexican television.

The Mexican peso dropped 0.62 percent on Tuesday morning, with some traders blaming the fall partially on the shooting.

"Yesterday the market was nervous because of the Fed stuff, but today it all started when the business of Ahumada's wife became known," said one trader.

Mexican stocks also fell but traders said that had more to do with U.S. Federal Reserve head Ben Bernanke warning on Monday that the Fed needed to be vigilant to control inflation in the United States.

Mexico's government played down the shooting.

"It's an isolated incident. All the conditions are in place for the electoral process to go ahead in the best way possible," government spokesman Ruben Aguilar told reporters.

(Additional reporting by Frank Jack Daniel)

(c) Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.