Violence stains the electoral process red; dozens of candidates have been assassinated in Mexico.
Political violence has taken over the current electoral process and has cost many candidates their lives.
A few days before the largest elections in Mexican history, 88 politicians have been assassinated during the current electoral process, 34 of them were aspiring for popularly elected positions.
Of these 88 politicians assassinated during the current electoral process, 44% of the victims belonged to the parties of the “Va Por México” alliance; that is, PAN, PRI, PRD. Meanwhile, 28% were active in the parties of the Morena alliance, PVEM, and PT, according to information from the consulting firm Etellekt.
What candidates have been assassinated in the last few months?
Political violence has taken over the current electoral process and the candidates have become the target of attacks in various states of the Mexican Republic. Here is a brief account of the candidates for elected office who have lost their lives.
Movimiento Ciudadano
The Movimiento Ciudadano political party (MC), founded by Dante Delgado, has been one of the political groups hardest hit by this wave of violence. During the current electoral process, the party has lost several of its members.
The most recent case occurred on May 25, when the candidate for mayor of Moroleón for Movimiento Ciudadano, Alma Rosa Barragán, was assassinated during a campaign event.
The candidate was at a campaign event in the middle of the streets of Moroleón, Guanajuato.
Last Thursday, May 13, Abel Murrieta Gutierrez, candidate for the municipal presidency of Cajeme, Sonora, was shot to death also in broad daylight, while he was handing out flyers a part of his campaign.
Abel Murrieta was shot more than ten times, including tw impacts in the head, he died while being transferred to a hospital, according to the police report.
The mayor of the municipality of Casimiro Castillo, in Jalisco, Alfredo Sevilla, who was seeking reelection, was also shot to death, the local prosecutor’s office reported.
Sevilla had temporarily left his post as mayor to be reelected by the Movimiento Ciudadano political party; he was reported missing on March 10 and found dead two days later, inside his car, at the bottom of a ravine.
PAN
The candidate for mayor of the National Action Party (PAN), Ivonne Gallegos, was assassinated in the state of Oaxaca, local authorities and the party’s national president reported. She aspired to be mayor of Ocotlán de Morelos.
Juan Antonio Acosta Cano, a local PAN deputy, was killed in January; he was running for mayor of Santa Cruz de Juventino Rosas, in Guanajuato.
PRI
The PRI candidate, Yuriel González, who was running for mayor of the municipality of Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, was assassinated during the night of March 5.
José Melquiades Vázquez, a candidate for mayor of the municipality of La Perla, in Veracruz, by the PRI, was killed on March 5 by gunmen while he was traveling in his vehicle with his wife.
PRD
On March 30, Alejandro Galicia, candidate for councilor of the Apaseo el Grande municipality, Guanajuato, was attacked when he was returning from touring towns in the area; he belonged to the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
MORENA
The Morena candidate who was seeking the mayor of the municipality of Chilón, Chiapas, Pedro Gutiérrez, was shot dead by a commando on March 17.
Carla Enríquez Merlín, the candidate for the municipal presidency of Cosoleacaque, Veracruz, by Morena, was killed inside her house in February.
PVEM
At dawn on Saturday, April 24, the candidate for local deputy for the XV District of Ciudad Victoria was assassinated by the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM), Francisco Rocha Chávez, better known as “Batata”.
The former soccer player and activist was shot to death, according to reports from the State Attorney General’s Office.
The events took place in the candidate’s own home, in the Mariano Matamoros neighborhood, east of Ciudad Victoria, very close to the premises of the Prosecutor’s Office itself.
Other candidates
The independent candidate Luis Roberto Don Félix was assassinated on the night of Thursday, April 8, in the parking lot of a shopping center in the municipality of Tecate, Baja California, where he was intercepted by a commando that opened fire on him. He was competing to be a municipal legislator for that state.
On April 9, J. Santos Isaac Chávez, candidate for the presidency of the Ejidal Commissariat of Ayotitlán, was assassinated. This area is very close to Jalisco and Colima.
In early March, Julio César Galindo, president of Coparmex in San Luis Potosí, was assassinated; he aspired to a popular office.
Source: UNO TV
