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World
Published
Last Update December 3, 2015

Governor of violent state in western Mexico leaves post, cites health problems

By | Associated Press
FILE - In this Jan. 14, 2014 file photo, Michoacan state Gov. Fausto Vallejo is driven away after attending a meeting at City Hall in Apatzingan, Mexico. Vallejo presented his resignation to Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto on Wednesday, June 18, 2014, citing health reasons. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 14, 2014 file photo, Michoacan state Gov. Fausto Vallejo is driven away after attending a meeting at City Hall in Apatzingan, Mexico. Vallejo presented his resignation to Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto on Wednesday, June 18, 2014, citing health reasons. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File) (The Associated Press)

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government says the governor of the embattled western state of Michoacan has left his post because of health reasons.

Mexico's presidency said in a Wednesday statement that Michoacan Gov. Fausto Vallejo met with President Enrique Pena Nieto to inform him of his decision. Vallejo is a member of Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Neither the presidency nor Vallejo have said what ails him. Vallejo took a leave of absence last year to have a kidney transplant.

Vallejo confirmed he is stepping down in his Twitter account, simply saying he is doing it so "I can take care of my health."

Vallejo's resignation comes a few days after local media published a purported photograph of his son in a meeting with members of the Knights Templar drug cartel.