Residents remember Italian killed in southern Mexico
TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico (AP) — Dozens of residents of the southern Mexico city of San Cristobal de las Casas paid homage late Tuesday to an Italian man shot to death in an apparent robbery.
Michele Colosio, 42, worked as a volunteer at a community health center in Chiapas state and supported local farming. He also helped out by fixing bicycles and supported environmental and social causes.
Members of the bicycle group Free Wheel Collective held a nighttime rally in Colosio’s memory, chanting “Justice! Justice!”.
Residents of San Cristobal demanded an investigation into his death, saying the picturesque city has been hit by crime and poverty.
“He fixed bicycles, did medical and radiology work, made bicycle machines, he was a fighter for social causes, a citizen of the world,” said San Cristobal resident Juan Ranulfo Ruiz Suárez.
Police said Colosio had stopped at a corner store to buy food when two men armed with a pistol robbed and shot him.
The health center where he worked said in a statement that Colosio was killed a block from his home as he returned to his house after watching Italy’s victory in soccer’s Euro Cup.
The center, Raiz del Viento, said Colosio was a trained radiological technician who had lived in Chiapas for about a decade. The center said street crime has increased in San Cristobal, which is a popular tourist destination.
Colosio was the second Italian citizen killed in the region in recent days. In Honduras, an Italian man was beaten and hacked to death Thursday by an angry mob of villagers. Residents claimed he had killed another resident of the town of Yusguare.
