Mexico faces its deadliest elections ever as 24 local candidates are killed

As Mexico prepares for the largest elections in its history, that will take place on June 2nd and that will include 32 jurisdictions with 20,000 positions up for grabs,   organized crime is once again preying on local candidates across many states where drug cartels dominate.

From September 2023, when electoral processes began, to now, Mexico's elections have become the most violent in the country's history, according to a report by Integralia, a consulting firm.

The incidents are of various types: in the period analyzed by Integralia, 161 murders took place, as well as 100 threats and 85 attacks. Attacks include kidnappings, disappearances and other forms of violence.

Between September 1 and April 1, 300 incidents of political violence with 399 victims have been recorded. That is, 1.8 people a day have suffered some type of violence, according to Integralia. So far, the first two weeks of March have been the most violent, with 84 victims.

To date, 24 political candidates have been executed, 72 threatened and 16 attacked with firearms, according to the firm.

Integralia’s report shows that local candidates are the main victims of attacks (31.8%), followed by current or former public officials (24.1%), politicians or former politicians (22.1%). Other victims involved are family members of candidates and politicians and collaterals.

The most affected candidates are those running for municipal positions, and they account for 73.4% of the attacks, followed by those running for federal (14.5%) and state (7.3%) positions.

The reason for this is that local power is “extremely important” to organized crime, according to political scientist Manuel Pérez Aguirre. “That’s why they look to establish control at the municipal level,” he told AP.

And they don’t discriminate either. Out of the 24 candidates killed, 13 were from Morena, the ruling party, three from PRI, three from PAN, two from the Citizen Movement, one from PRD, one from the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico and one from the Labor Party.

Miguel Ángel Zavala Reyes, from Morena, and Armando Pérez Luna, from PAN, in fact, were murdered in Michoacán just five hours apart from each other at the end of February.

Both were shot dead: Zavala Reyes while he was leaving work, and Pérez Luna when he was in his car.

The violence is also concentrated in some areas of the country, especially in the west and center: Guerrero (73 victims), Michoacán (56) and Morelos (36) are the most violent states to date.

Elections in Mexico have been violent for years, but this is the worst it’s ever been. Between 2017 and 2018, the federal elections that brought Andrés Manuel López to power, saw 389 victims of violence, 10 less than the current ones, in an ongoing campaign. In 2020-2021, there were 299 victims of violence.

Faced with this environment of profound violence and in the face of continuous threats, several candidates from different parties decided to abandon their races. In Michoacán, at the end of March 34 candidates had already resigned, as newspaper El País México recalls.

Rosa Icela Rodríguez, Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection of Mexico, recently revealed that, as of April 1, the institution had received some 108 requests for protection.

While federal authorities offer security details to national candidates, those running for local offices, the ones that drug cartels really want to control, are completely exposed.

Never miss a story! Click here to follow The Daily Digest.