Rosa Icela Rodríguez, head of the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), reported that officially there are 22 candidates for local positions who have been murdered in the current electoral process, and not 34, as some reports indicate.
In front of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Rodríguez explained that to date eight homicides have occurred against candidates in the current electoral process; four murders of people who were registered in his party, but who did not manage to register officially, and 10 murders of candidates, but who were not officially registered as candidates.
However, the civil organization Data Cívica counts thirty homicides in the country in this electoral process.
In this context of violence, law enforcement agencies have been monitoring the printing and transfer of millions of electoral ballots that will be used next Sunday in the 32 states of the country.
Deployment of Security Forces
To guarantee security in Mexico’s general elections next Sunday, the government has announced the deployment of a total of 27,245 military personnel and members of the National Guard.
The 27,245 troops announced are added to the 233,543 that already carry out surveillance of Mexican territory, in an effort to ensure an electoral process free of violence.
This measure is taken in response to the murders of more than 20 candidates and aspirants, the government reported this Tuesday.
In his daily press conference, President López Obrador expressed that this operation aims to ensure that voters “can go to vote, calmly, safely, without fear.”
The president is confident that these elections, with more than 20,000 federal and local positions in dispute, will be “clean, free and, above all, peaceful.”
Additional Security Measures
The Secretary of the Navy, Rafael Ojeda, confirmed that “security was reinforced in the electoral process.” In addition, Ojeda detailed that 560 troops have been assigned for the security of candidates and electoral officials, including 24 for each of the three main candidates for the presidency: Claudia Sheinbaum, Xóchitl Gálvez and Jorge Álvarez Máynez.
Mexico is shaken by a wave of violence linked to organized crime that has left 450,000 dead and some 100,000 missing since, in December 2006, the then government launched a frontal combat strategy with the participation of the military.
#AMLOs #government #registers #candidates #local #office #murdered #current #electoral #process
