U.S. couple killed while visiting violence-riddled part of western Mexico

A couple from the United States was shot and killed while visiting the western Mexican state of Michoacan, which has been overrun by a wave of violent crime.

State prosecutors said in a statement Thursday that the couple – identified as Gloria A., 50, and Rafael C., 53 – was traveling in a pickup truck in the municipality of Angamacutiro on Wednesday when they were shot and killed.

The woman died at the scene and the man died from his injuries shortly after at a local hospital, the statement added.

It was not immediately clear why the couple, who were married, were targeted.

A spokeswoman for state prosecutors told Reuters that the woman, who had obtained U.S. citizenship, and the man, who was born in the U.S. to Mexican parents, had family and a home in Angamacutiro.

The U.S. State Department told CBS News on Thursday that it was aware of the reports of the death of two U.S. citizens in Mexico.

“We have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas,” the department said in a statement. “We are working to gather more information and stand ready to provide consular assistance if needed. We have no further details to share, at this time.

Spiraling violence, much of it linked to drug trafficking, has seen more than 450,000 people murdered in Mexico since 2006, when the government launched an offensive against organized crime.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office in October, has ruled out launching a new “war on drugs,” as the controversial program was known.

She has pledged to follow her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s “hugs, not bullets” strategy of using social policy to address the causes of crime.

Gangs and drug cartels have long infiltrated, intimidated or bribed local officials into working for them, often going so far as to take a cut of the municipal budget or use local police forces to warn them or protect them from federal raids. Sometimes, police officers themselves profit from the drug trade.

Speaking out about cartel corruption can have deadly consequences. Earlier this year, a business leader in Tamaulipas state was shot to death after he complained in TV interviews about cartel extortion. Just weeks before that, a prominent businesswoman who had made similar complaints was murdered in the northern border state of Baja California.