Gustavo Vázquez Montes

Gustavo Alberto Vázquez Montes (August 16 1962 – February 24 2005) was a Mexican politician. At the time of his death he was serving as the governor of the western state of Colima, representing the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Vázquez Montes was born in Tecomán, Colima. After graduating from teacher-training college and entering politics, he served as the mayor of his home town and its representative in the state Congress. He was selected as the PRI's candidate in the 2003 gubernatorial election and, after heated disputes and the annulment of the first round, he was ruled the victor and was invested as Governor on January 1 2004.

On February 24 2005, while travelling back to state capital Colima, Colima, from Mexico City, his six-seater Westwind 1124 aeroplane developed problems shortly after its 16h15 take-off from Toluca airport and crashed in the municipality of Tzitzio, Michoacán, 70 km to the southeast of Morelia. The governor was killed, along with the pilot and copilot, Germán Ausencia Faubet and Mario Torres González; the Colima state secretaries of tourism and finance, Roberto Preciado Cuevas and Luis Ramón Barreda Cedillo; the state's tourism director, Guillermo Díaz Zamorano; and local Coparmex president Alejandro Dávila.

In the immediate aftermath of the accident, Arnoldo Ochoa González was appointed acting governor and an extraordinary election was called for April 2005.

ee also

*2005 Colima state election