A gunman shot dead an aspiring mayor at a rally in Mexico, marking a bloody end to campaigning before Sunday’s general election.
More than 20 people running for office have been murdered during a particularly violent election campaign in the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking country, according to an official count. The latest victim, mayoral candidate José Alfredo Cabrera, was shot in the southern state of Guerrero.
Footage published by local media showed a person approaching Cabrera and shooting him several times, plunging the rally into chaos.
Evelyn Salgado, the Guerrero governor, condemned the “cowardly” murder of Cabrera, who was a candidate for an opposition coalition in the town of Coyuca de Benitez. Salgado asked that the state prosecutor’s office bring “the full weight of the law against the person or persons responsible”. The prosecutor’s office later announced that the attacker had been killed at the scene.
Rosa Icela Rodriguez, Mexico’s security minister, said on Tuesday that at least 22 people running for local office had been murdered since last September. However, some non-governmental organisations, including Data Civica, a human rights group, have the figure closer to 30.
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On Tuesday, a mayoral candidate in the central state of Morelos was murdered and another was wounded by gunfire in the western Jalisco state, authorities said.
Cartels see local elections as an opportunity to make power grabs in turf wars, with the violence being particularly severe in states where criminal groups are fighting for territory, such as Chiapas and Guerrero in the south and Michoacán in central Mexico. At least 145 people tied to politics have been killed by organised crime this year, according to tracking by Data Civica.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party said the government had “not made even the slightest effort to guarantee the safety of the candidates”.
About 27,000 soldiers and National Guard members are expected to be deployed on Sunday to reinforce security when millions of Mexicans vote for a new president, members of Congress, several state governors and myriad local officials.
Claudia Sheinbaum, 61, is leading in the polls and appears almost certain to be elected president. “We’re going to make history,” the ruling-party candidate told a cheering crowd at her closing campaign rally in Mexico City’s main square. “I say to the young women, to all the women of Mexico — colleagues, friends, sisters, daughters, mothers and grandmothers — you are not alone,” Sheinbaum said.
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She has pledged to continue the controversial strategy on crime instigated by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the outgoing left-wing president, that he calls “hugs not bullets”.
Criminal violence in the country has left more than 450,000 people dead since 2006.
