In Mexico, more than 30 candidates have already been murdered

Mexico is experiencing an unprecedented wave of attacks and political violence during the current election cycle.

As we approach the general elections, scheduled for June 2nd, where Mexicans will also have to choose their new president, the country has already seen more than 30 candidates for different types of public positions in dispute being murdered.

Violence against politicians in the country has been so extreme that even members of current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s party, the leftist MORENA (National Regeneration Movement), have been targeted. The National Action Party (PAN), the main opposition representative, also suffered significant losses.

According to the think tank Laboratorio Electoral, an organization that monitors elections in several Latin American countries, since the beginning of the current electoral cycle, which took place on June 4, 2023, until this Wednesday (1st), there have been 187 cases of violence in Mexico electoral campaign, including 60 murders of people involved in political campaigns (31 of whom were candidates for public office), 13 kidnappings, 33 assassination attempts and 81 cases of death threats.

Such numbers point to the current electoral cycle as one of the bloodiest in recent history.

The months with the highest number of recorded murders were July and October 2023 and January, February and March this year, as pointed out by Laboratorio Electoral.

“The increase in cases [assassinato de políticos] in the last three months [janeiro, fevereiro e março] was 150%, which shows that we are facing a spiral of violence that coincides with the end of pre-campaigns and the registration of candidacies at local level”, said the think tank in a report released in April.

Among the most shocking cases is the murder of Noe Ramos Ferretiz, who was the current mayor of Ciudad Mante, located in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Ramos Ferretiz was a candidate for re-election to the municipal executive by PAN.

According to local media reports, Ramos Ferretiz was stabbed several times by unknown men while walking through the streets in the south of his city, in an attempt to garner support for his candidacy.

As published on the website Braitbart, the candidate had given statements to the Mexican media regarding the expansion of the Gulf Cartel in Ciudad Mante. Ramos Ferretiz said that the federal government, led by López Obrador, “refused to deal” with this issue and that the cartel “was extorting local farmers with total impunity.”

Another tragic case was that of Alberto Antonio García, candidate for mayor of the city of San José Independencia, located in the state of Oaxaca, for López Obrador’s party, MORENA.

García and his wife, Agar Cancino Gómez, who is the current mayor, were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in April. García was tortured and murdered, while his wife, who was also tortured, was spared death and found alive days after her kidnapping.

The cases cited show that criminal attacks against politicians do not discriminate between parties, affecting both government and opposition politicians.

MORENA has so far been the political party most affected by criminal attacks and murders, according to Laboratorio Electoral. The opposition PAN came in second as the party most affected by violence.

Laboratorio Electoral said that this electoral cycle has already surpassed the number of candidates murdered during the last presidential election held in 2018. According to the organization, the trend of increasing violence associated with elections in the country is worrying.

Comparing the data, Laboratorio Electoral showed that, while in 2018 there were 43 murders related to electoral violence, of which 24 were of pre-candidates or candidates, in this year the number of deaths has already reached 31 and is still at risk of increasing.

In 2021, during the legislative elections, Laboratorio Electoral said that 88 political murders occurred in Mexico, of which 30 were related to pre-candidates or candidates.

“The phenomenon of electoral violence has grown in the country and is expanding more and more. It is not just a question of numbers, but also a territorial expansion: there are more critical areas, more points with a higher incidence of violence and more attacks “, said Arturo Espinosa Silis, director of Laboratorio Electoral, to the newspaper El País.

To try to mitigate violence, Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE), responsible for organizing the elections, issued a protocol during this electoral cycle to offer security services to candidates who request them.

As of March 25, according to the Laboratorio Electoral report, 99 requests for protection had been requested, of which 74 had already been approved (89.16%) and none had been denied.