Former mayor of Rio Bravo, 2 AFI Agents assassinated [Graphic Images]

Editor’s Note: Get this out there before Glenn Beck and other’s put their hate spin on it. Another honest politician gunned down!

RIO BRAVO, Mexico — A memorial of flowers and candles took up yards of sidewalk Friday near the bullet-riddled cafeteria where a former mayor who had promised to rid this city of drug corruption was gunned down the previous day. Juan Antonio Guajardo Anzaldua, a father of four, would have turned 49 on Friday. He was shot dead at 5:38 p.m. Thursday at his family-owned restaurant, along with two bodyguards and three other people.

WARNING - GRAPHIC IMAGES FOLLOW

Guajardo served two terms as mayor and lost a Nov. 11 election for another term. His face remained plastered on campaign posters all over the small city, which is across the border from Mercedes.

The killings underscored the dangers of speaking out against narcotics traffickers in a borderland that authorities say remains in the control of the Gulf Cartel.

Guajardo had been featured in Mexican media reports when he filed a criminal complaint claiming he had been followed by gun-toting narco gangsters before the elections.

He was a strong critic of the alleged infiltration of drug gangs in mayoral contests throughout the state in November.

On Friday, a steady stream of shocked passers-by visited the busy intersection where the massacre occurred.

While other Mexican border cities — most notably Nuevo Laredo and nearby Reynosa — have been plagued for years by violence attributed to warring drug cartels, Rio Bravo had stayed relatively tranquil.

“It’s not good,” 54-year-old Arturo Fuentes said. “It’s always been quiet here. People are scared now. No one wants to say anything.”

Several who said they witnessed the attack spoke gravely of automatic gunfire continuing for several minutes as people on nearby streets and sidewalks cowered. Three people were seriously injured and brought to a Reynosa hospital.

Witnesses said the shooters appeared to be four men between 18 and 25 in a light-colored van that had no license plates.

Witnesses said Guajardo and his companions were arriving at the cafeteria, which is one of about a block-long stretch of businesses owned by his family, when the gunfire erupted. The assailants disappeared.

Local newspapers showed photos of the men splayed out on the road and sidewalk, with bullet wounds visible on their foreheads, chests and backs.

State authorities identified two of the other victims as Gastón Miguel Seguera García and Israel Sánchez Castillo, both members of the Federal Investigations Agency (AFI) assigned to serve as bodyguards for Guajardo at the request of the attorney general’s office for the state of Tamaulipas.

The others were Genaro Enrique Guzmán Velázquez, Jesús Mata García and Carlos Hugo Moncada González, according to a Tamaulipas attorney general office’s news statement.

Federal authorities almost immediately took over the investigation.

Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio Hernandez Flores promised to “work with the federal authorities to find and punish those responsible for this act of violence” so that peace in Tamaulipas could continue, according to a statement in Hoy Tamaulipas, an informational Web site about the state.

Children used cell phones to take photos of the bullet holes and the shattered glass from the marquee of an adjacent movie theater. Several residents said they were certain Guajardo was targeted for saying the city should be cleared of corruption, and said the bloodbath showed the drug cartels were in power.

All refused to give their names, saying they were fearful of retaliation.

Next to the memorial leaned one of Guajardo’s campaign posters. His slogan was “security.”