Meanwhile, on the day of elections, Two people were killed in separate attacks on voting centers in the Mexican state of Puebla, a local government security source reported.
A woman died during a shootout that broke out after the assault on a voting booth in the municipality of Tlapanalá, where unknown persons stole electoral material, according to that source. Another person lost his life near an electoral post in the town of Coyomeapan, in an event also linked to the theft of electoral documents, she added.
37 candidates murdered
Since the political campaigns began, 37 candidates for public office have been murdered. The most recent victim was a candidate for a local office in the state of Michoacán (west), shot dead hours before the polls opened, the regional prosecutor’s office reported.
This is Israel Delgado, 35, an aspiring trustee (comptroller) of the town of Cuitzeo, who was shot on Saturday night near his home, the Michoacán prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Due to a series of attacks and the presence of alleged criminals, the Chiapas authorities decided to suspend the elections in two municipalities of that state bordering Guatemala.
According to the Michoacán prosecutor’s office, Delgado, a candidate for a center-left coalition, was attacked by two men on a motorcycle who fled.
This week alone, four candidates were shot dead, the last of them last Friday in the state of Puebla, in central Mexico.
That region has been one of the hardest hit by political violence, a phenomenon on the rise in Mexico since 2018 and behind which there are organized crime organizations that dispute the control of territories and seek to coerce local authorities.
Arturo Espinosa, director of the Electoral Laboratory platform, said that from June 4, 2023 to May 29, 2024, there were 320 attacks against politicians of which 93 were murders, 36 of them were candidates and pre-candidates for elected positions. popular, 131 cases correspond to threats, 77 attacks and 17 kidnappings.
The most violent states
Espinosa said that in the last year, there are eight states that have recorded the highest number of violent events: Guerrero, Chiapas, Morelos, Michoacán, Jalisco, the state of Mexico, Puebla and Oaxaca. “In this report we warn for the first time the municipalities that register the highest number of murders related to the elections, they are: Mastepec, Chiapas with 7 cases; Concordia, Chiapas with 6; Acapulco, Guerrero with 4 cases; Maravatío, Michoacán with three; and Benemerito de las Américas, Chiapas with 2 cases.
“Violence against aspirants and candidacies increased in the period from February to May “with a worrying rebound in the months of March and May, which coincides with the conclusion of the pre-campaigns in many entities, the moment in which the candidacies are defined and the end of the campaigns in the whole country”.
Despite the fact that the outgoing president, whose policy during his six-year term against drug trafficking was “hugs, not bullets”, his party, Morena, is the party with the highest number of murdered candidates, followed by the PAN and the PRI, with 8 and 4, respectively.
The elections are considered a referendum on the administration of López Obrador, who in his six years in office expanded the militarization of the country and could not control insecurity, impunity or the advance of organized crime.
The candidate of the ruling Morena party, Claudia Sheinbaum, former mayor of the capital, is the favorite of the race followed by the businesswoman and former senator Xóchitl Gálvez, who heads the opposition coalition formed by a conservative party (the PAN), a leftist party (the PRD ) and the one who governed Mexico for seven decades of the 20th century (the PRI).
Everything indicates that Sheinbaum will continue the failed security policy of López Obrador, his political godfather.
Gálvez regretted the bloody electoral process. “There is talk of 25 to 30 (murdered candidates), but they are not here today and that is very unfortunate,” declared Gálvez.
Challenges
The expansion of organized crime, which thrives on crimes such as extortion, “is the most intimidating problem” that whoever wins the presidency will have to face, said Michael Shifter, a researcher at the Inter-American Dialogue analysis center, based in Washington.
It will also have the challenge of maintaining social programs when the fiscal deficit rose to 5.9% and the average growth in the last six years was barely 0.8%.
Another challenge will be the relationship with the United States, the destination of 80% of Mexican exports, especially if Donald Trump returns to power, Shifter warned.
Trump threatened mass deportations of migrants crossing the almost 3,200 km binational border. Furthermore, in 2026 the two countries and Canada must renegotiate their T-MEC trade agreement.
In these elections, the left also seeks to expand the simple majority it has in Congress to approve controversial reforms, including one in the judicial field, as well as retain the mayor’s office of the City of Mexicohis bastion.
Source: Electoral Laboratory, Mexico / AFP
