04/20/2024 – 13:21
A wave of violence sweeps the country on the eve of the general election on June 2nd. Since September, 17 candidates have been murdered, according to consultancy Integralia. Crisis has generated friction with Ecuador. Two candidates for mayor in Mexico were murdered this Friday (19/04), amid the wave of electoral violence sweeping the country on the eve of the general election on June 2, which will elect president , deputies and regional governments.
Noé Ramos, who was seeking reelection in Ciudad Mante, in the state of Tamaulipas (northeast), was stabbed to death while talking to supporters, the state Public Ministry reported.
According to the Tamaulipas prosecutor, Irving Barrios, initial investigations point to a single perpetrator, who is being sought by the police.
According to local media, Ramos, a candidate for a center-right coalition, was walking through the city's streets talking to citizens when a man approached and attacked him with a knife.
The other crime occurred in the state of Oaxaca, in the south of the country. Alberto Antonio García was running for mayor of San José Independencia for the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), the party of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
García and his wife, Agar Cancino, current mayor of the city, had been missing since Wednesday. Cancino was found alive this Friday on a small island known as Cerro Arena. García, on the other hand, was found dead, the state prosecutor's office said.
Violence before elections
Politicians have been frequent victims of organized crime in Mexico, especially those who hold or run for regional office. The reasons range from attempts by mafias to subjugate candidates to power struggles between political groups.
“They make a deal and say, 'This person is going to be mayor; we don't want anyone else to register to run,' and whoever does, well, they know” what to expect, López Obrador said recently of drug cartels' efforts to control local politics.
The period leading up to the June 2 elections is one of the most violent in the country's history. Since September 23, 17 candidates have been murdered, consultancy Integralia reported.
On April 1, mayoral candidate Bertha Gisela Gaytan was shot in the streets of Celaya, in the state of Guanajuato (center), at the end of her first rally for the Morena party. Her body was left next to her supporters.
Wave of violence also in Ecuador
In addition to Mexico, Ecuador is also experiencing a wave of electoral violence, with two politicians murdered in 48 hours this week. At the end of March, another Ecuadorian mayor, Brigitte García, 27, from the coastal city of San Vicente, was also shot dead. She was considered the youngest mayor in the country and was active in the Citizen Revolution movement, led by former leftist president Rafael Correa (2007-2017).
In early February, councilor Diana Carnero, 29, also a supporter of Correa, died in the same way.
This year alone, five mayors have already been murdered in the country. Prosecutors, journalists and police officers are also among the victims of criminals linked to cartels in Colombia and Mexico.
Violence generates friction between Ecuador and Mexico
Recently, the wave of political violence in Ecuador gave rise to a diplomatic crisis with Mexico, the culmination of which was the breakdown of relations between the two countries after Ecuadorian police invaded the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest former vice-president Jorge Glas, accused of corruption and who had been taking refuge there since the end of 2023.
The government of Ecuadorian Daniel Noboa was disturbed by a statement by his Mexican namesake, López Obrador, who compared the violence in the Mexican electoral campaign to the situation in Ecuador in 2023, when presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was murdered.
The Mexican president said that the murder particularly harmed Luisa González, the candidate of the left-wing Citizen Revolution movement, led by former president Rafael Correa. For López Obrador, González was unfairly associated with Villavicencio's murder, damaging his candidacy and culminating in the victory of Daniel Noboa, an inexperienced politician and heir to a fortune built on the banana trade – a commodity that is used by drug traffickers as a disguise for shipping of drugs to Europe and the United States.
le (AP, AFP, ots
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