Slain Mexican official had strong Kent ties

Just a couple of years ago Joanne Schaut walked with Gabriel Gomez Michel, the mayor of El Grullo, Jalisco, Mexico, in the annual Kent Cornucopia Days parade.

So when the news broke last month that Gomez Michel was killed and burned after being kidnapped in Mexico, his death hit Schauf hard.

“It’s devastating news,” said Schaut, who worked as the city of Kent’s international programs coordinator when El Grullo became a sister city. She first met Gomez Michel in 2001.

“Honorable, integrity and without question compassionate, kind and caring,” Schaut said when asked to describe Gomez Michel, who had many ties to Kent. “He had all of the qualities each one of us should strive to obtain in our lives.”

Gomez Michel, 49, served as El Grullo mayor from 2010-12 before he became a federal congressman representing Jalisco. He and his assistant Heriberto Nunez Ramos were in a sport-utility vehicle on Sept. 22 on their way to the airport in the western state of Jalisco when several cars surrounded his vehicle, according to news reports.

The burned bodies of both men were found the next day inside their SUV in the neighboring state of Zacatecas. A state prosecutor said a drug cartel was probably behind the killings.

Gomez Michel was a member of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s governing Institutional Revolutionary Party. About 90,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since 2006 in Mexico, according to the New York Times.

Officials said the lawmaker had not received threats before his killing. At least 30 mayors have been killed since 2006 during the drug wars, but attacks against federal lawmakers are less common, according to news reports.

Nunez Ramos was a best friend of Gomez Michel and also visited Kent. Armando Nuñez, the brother of Nunez Ramos, served as El Grullo mayor when it became a sister city of Kent.

Roberto Gonzales, owner of Mexico Lindo restaurant across from Kent City Hall, suggested that El Grullo become a sister city, Schaut said. Gonzales grew up in El Grullo. Then Kent Mayor Jim White and Schauf visited El Grullo to help set up the sister city status.

Gomez Michel, who worked as a pediatrician, visited Kent about four times. He and other city officials checked out local garbage and recycling facilities to help establish similar systems in El Grullo. They also looked at water purification and street maintenance operations to take back to their town.

The former El Grullo mayor also had ties to Kent through firefighters. Battalion Chief Paul Wright, of the Kent Fire Department Regional Fire Authority, worked with Gomez Michel to help set up the first fire department in El Grullo, a town of about 25,000, in 2006.

“He was instrumental in securing the financing of the new fire station in El Grullo,” Wright said. “He also secured the property that the fire station was built on.”

Wright in 2005 started TapFire, a nonprofit Bremerton-based organization, that helps train firefighters and provides fire equipment to cities in Mexico and other countries. But El Grullo and Gomez Michel hold a special memory for Wright.

“My wife and I are deeply saddened by the loss of a friend and a man of the people,” said Wright, who met with Gomez Michel many times in Kent and Mexico. “The manner of his death was a shock and our hearts and prayers go out to his family and the people of the region that he served.”

A group of a few dozen people  gathered for a celebration of life for Gomez Michel on Oct. 7 in Kent. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Sally Goodgion, of Kent, knew Gomez Michel from his visits here and the sister cities connection.

“Not only are people here sad but people in Mexico are devastated,” Goodgion said. “It’s a terrible story. He was such a loved  man.”

Although El Grullo is no longer a sister city of Kent, strong friendships remain between residents of both cities.

“The friendships we developed are lifetime friendships,” Schaut said.