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Mexico’s Elections Overshadowed By Killing Candidate

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MEXICO CITY (Worthy News) – A mayoral candidate was shot dead in Mexico’s southwestern state of Guerrero Thursday as Mexicans prepared for local and national votes in which they were likely to elect the nation’s first female president amid massive killings.

Alfredo Cabrera, who was running for mayor in the town of Coyuca de Benítez, was killed by a gunman at a campaign event, witnesses said.

Video footage showed him shaking hands with supporters before his closing rally in Guerrero state.

Someone could be seen approaching him when, suddenly, some 15 shots reverberated throughout the area.

Guerrero state officials said that members of Mexico’s National Guard returned fire, killing the gunman at the scene. The mayor had reportedly been under police protection after having been the target of a previous attack in 2023. Authorities announced an investigation into a possible motive.

It was the latest violence in the run-up to Sunday’s vote, in which a new president, as well as members of the legislature, nine governors, and almost 20,000 local officials will be chosen.

Described as ”Mexico’s most violent” election period “in recent history,” over 20 candidates have been killed, and hundreds more threatened, well-informed sources say.

NEW LEADER

The new leader of Mexico, the U.S.’ biggest trading partner, will likely try to break the cycle of violence and can make or break bilateral collaborations that have helped to reduce but not end the massive migration towards the United States.

While immigration has been a top concern in the upcoming U.S. elections, it’s been rarely mentioned in Mexico’s presidential race, signaling internal worries about security issues, commentators noticed

Six in 10 adults in Mexico consider it unsafe to live in their city due mainly to fear of theft or armed violence, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography.

Mexico has tallied more than 188,000 murders in the last six years, even as the murder rate has very slightly fallen from a record high in 2018.

Extortion from armed groups remains common nationwide, and official data shows reports of forced disappearances increased during the six-year presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who cannot run again because of term limits.

This election cycle has been dangerous for politicians, “with at least two dozen candidates being killed, and 469 receiving special police protection over threats,” the security ministry said.

The two leading presidential candidates are Claudia Sheinbaum from the ruling Morena coalition and Xóchitl Gálvez, a former senator from the opposition coalition called Fuerza y Corazón por México.

TACKLING VIOLENCE

Sheinbaum, who is leading in the polls, is a scientist and formerly the leader of Mexico City’s government.

Her proposals to stem violence largely mirror those of her mentor, López Obrador, who created the National Guard and gave it significant power over public safety while promoting his famous “hugs, not bullets” mantra.

She’s also promised to create a new national criminal investigations program to tackle impunity, as more than 98 percent of crimes go unpunished or unsolved in Mexico.

Gálvez, an engineer, has pledged to build a new maximum security prison, invest in forensics, and strengthen the justice system. She wants to keep the National Guard deployed in critical areas but make it civilian-led.

Trailing them is Jorge Álvarez Maynez of the centrist party Movimiento Ciudadano.

Yet the security initiatives came too late for Mayor Cabrera and countless others who were killed but whose names may never be known.

Cabrera’s murder was condemned by Xóchitl Gálvez, who is running for president for the center-right opposition coalition. Gálvez said, “No words to express the indignation I feel.”
She added that she had met Alfredo Cabrera and found him “a generous and upstanding man.”

Gálvez, 61, was backed by a coalition of opposition parties aiming to remove the governing Morena party from office. They will now have to look for a new candidate, like other groups standing up in bloodstained Mexico.