Candidates for national seats receive security details from federal authorities, while candidates for municipal offices, which the drug cartels genuinely want to dominate, are left fully exposed.
In Short
- Mexico is bracing for what experts fear may be its bloodiest elections yet, with organized crime preying on local candidates.
- Candidates across various states have been kidnapped, assaulted, and even killed by gunmen, raising concerns about the safety of the electoral process.
- The rise in political violence underscores the challenges faced by thousands of local candidates, with drug cartels targeting municipal offices they seek to dominate.
- Despite federal authorities providing security details for national candidates, those running for municipal offices are left fully exposed to threats and violence.
TFD – Delve into the escalating tensions surrounding Mexico’s elections as candidates face unprecedented threats from drug cartels and political violence. Discover the challenges and risks shaping this pivotal electoral process.
MEXICO CITY Experts fear that these may be the bloodiest elections in Mexico’s history as the country gets ready for the biggest elections in its history. Organized crime is once again preying on local candidates in areas of the nation where cartels are powerful.
In the southern state of Guerrero, Julián López, the coordinator of the Citizen Movement party, witnessed it firsthand on February 7, when he and two coworkers were kidnapped by gunmen brandishing rifles while driving. After being battered and robbed of his belongings, 43-year-old Lopez was forced to kneel next to a distant landfill before being left alone in the middle of the night.
Not so lucky were two mayoral candidates in the nearby state of Michoacan, located in the municipality of Maravatio. On Monday, they were shot dead by gunmen a few hours apart. One was from the governing Morena party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the other from the conservative National Action Party. In November, a third mayoral candidate from that town was kidnapped and later discovered deceased.
on the vast Ecatepec district of Mexico City, a man running for Congress on behalf of the Morena party was shot and killed on the street on February 10 along with his brother. There were reports that he was threatened by a local union.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party’s local leader and Suchiate, Chiapas, mayoral candidate was assassinated one month prior on January 5. On the same day, as he was driving in the northwest state of Colima, a gunman shot a mayoral candidate from the Citizen Movement party in Armeria.
Since his kidnapping, Guerrero candidate López has refused to ride in armored cars with armed security.
He questioned, “How will it appear to see a leader traveling around the state of Guerrero in armored cars and with armed officials?” “I don’t think that’s a good way to encourage citizen participation or to get closer to the people.”
Before the June 2 elections—which will take place in all 32 jurisdictions and include over 20,000 positions up for grabs—thousands of local candidates find themselves in a similar predicament. The National Electoral Institute claims that this will be Mexico’s largest election ever.
Candidates for municipal offices, which the drug cartels genuinely want to dominate, are fully exposed and acutely aware of the optics of running from within a security bubble, while federal authorities provide security details to national candidates.
The collective Data Civica has recorded thirty assaults on political candidates and party officials between September, when the majority of them began their pre-campaign activity, and February 10. Itxaro Arteta, a spokesman for the organization, expressed concern after noting eight attacks on prospective candidates in January—more than twice as many as they had witnessed in any previous January before 2018.
The Violence and Peace Seminar at the College of Mexico oversees research on election violence, which is coordinated by political scientist Manuel Pérez Aguirre. Their investigation around the killings of 32 local candidates in the 2021 elections found that the lethal electoral violence is “predominantly local, because 85% of the victims were running for municipal posts.”
According to Pérez Aguirre, “local power is extremely important to organized crime.” “They seek to establish control at the municipal level because of this.”
The present president’s security apparatus has made those local candidates more susceptible. The federal police were dismantled by López Obrador, who also established the National Guard, a quasi-military organization that offers no deterrent to heavily armed gangs.
According to Pérez Aguirre, “municipal police haven’t really been strengthened, and local power has really been abandoned.”
Concerns about increasing electoral violence that arose earlier last week after the killings in Maravatio were dismissed by López Obrador. “Overall homicides, the same trend of declining crimes is going to continue,” he declared.
He encouraged state and municipal governments to offer security for politicians competing for local offices, and he said that the federal government would defend candidates for president, governor, and Congress.
The president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party in Michoacan, Guillermo Valencia, stated on Saturday that “I’m struggling to find candidates in other (races),” adding that “four candidates have already resigned on me.” According to him, the party’s congressional candidate in the port of Lazaro Cardenas has already requested protection.
Valencia stated he is attempting to strike an agreement with two other opposition parties to put out a single candidate in Maravatio, where the three other parties’ prospective candidates have already been slain.
He declared, “Democracy is threatened in Michoacan and Mexico.”
In a report released in February, political risk consultancy Integralia Consultores noted that certain regions of the nation were more vulnerable to organized crime’s meddling in elections due to the growth of black markets, hostilities between armed factions, and a lax application of the law.
The drug trade is not the only thing that cartels deal in. They demand protection money from local government agencies as well as companies of all kinds. According to Integralia’s study, they not only use political assassinations to further their agenda, but they also fund the campaigns of candidates who will let them to operate or even nominate their own candidates.
The National Action Party’s national president, Marko Cortés, denounced the assassination of his party’s candidate in Maravatio this week and called for increased federal security for voters.
He declared, “It isn’t possible that they are assassinating candidates from other parties.” “They are not being protected, there are no risk maps, protocols, or security mechanisms, and those in charge are still uninterested in helping.”
At least two of his party’s candidates have withdrawn from the June election due to the violence. Fearing for their safety, he would not tell where.
But López, who managed to escape his kidnapping, was not going to give up.
He declared, “We absolutely cannot give up and surrender.” “We need to keep working if we think things can get better.”
Conclusion
The escalating political violence in Mexico poses a grave threat to democracy and the integrity of the electoral process. As candidates face increasing risks from drug cartels and organized crime, it’s imperative for authorities to prioritize candidate safety and uphold the principles of free and fair elections. The outcome of Mexico’s elections will not only shape the future of the nation but also test its resilience in the face of adversity.
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