Leader of radical farm workers' movement shot to death in southern Mexico

Three assailants wielding assault rifles shot to death the leader of a radical farmers' movement near the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco on Monday, and two Mexican tourists died in a shooting at a beach just eats of the resort.

Miguel Angel Mesino, a leader of the Organization of Peasants of the Southern Sierra, known as the OCSS, was shot several times in the head on a street in the town of Atoyac, about 40 miles (70 kms) west of Acapulco.

"We don't believe that this killing had anything to do with a personal dispute," said the dead man's sister, Rocio Mesino. "We are demanding that the authorities not allow this killing to go unpunished."

Seventeen of the radical group's members were killed by Guerrero state police June 28, 1995; an armed rebel group, the People's Revolutionary Army or EPR, appeared at the same spot one year later.

The rebels staged a number of attacks and ambushes on police and military installations in the late 1990s, killing more than 20 people. Mesino denied belonging to the group.

Also Monday, two tourists _ a man and woman from the neighboring state of Oaxaca _ were shot to death by an assailant at the Revolcadero beach east of Acapulco.

The assailant fled and authorities offered no immediate information on the motive in the killings, AP reported.