Clashes between security forces and drug traffickers left five people dead in Mexico.
At least five people were killed over the weekend in the Mexican state of Michoacan in clashes between security forces and drug traffickers two weeks ahead of local elections, prosecutors said Monday.Government troops killed two people in a shootout in the town of Tuzantla, and two others were killed when their car crashed during an escape attempt, the state prosecutors office said.In the town of Benito Juarez, troops killed a member of a drug gang in a brief firefight, the official report said, adding that a kidnap victim was freed after that encounter.All five of the dead were alleged to be members of the La Familia Michoacana cartel and a gang that calls itself the Knights Templar.Michoacan, a state on Mexicos Pacific coast, holds local elections November 13 in which President Felipe Calderons sister is running for governor as the candidate of the ruling National Action Party.