In Mexico, campaigners fear attacks that have killed 34

It’s routine preparation for a campaign stop for Guillermo Valencia, who's running for mayor in Morelia, capital of the troubled Mexican state of Michoacan

MORELIA, Mexico -- It's routine preparation for a campaign stop for Guillermo Valencia, who is running for mayor in Morelia, capital of the troubled Mexican state of Michoacan. Bodyguards ride in cars ahead and behind him and before reaching the rally, he stops by a relative’s house to strap on a bulletproof vest. Only a driver accompanies Valencia in his own armored SUV. Other campaign aides have been scared to ride with him since a May 8 attack that wounded a bodyguard and his private secretary and left his previous campaign vehicle riddled with bullets. He was lucky not to join the 34 formal or would-be candidates who already have been killed in the run-up to Mexico’s June 6 midterm elections, which will choose mayors, governors and the lower house of Congress. “There’s a smell of gunpowder,” Valencia jokes. “Who is going to want to go around with me?”