Movimiento Ciudadano candidate and her family kidnapped in Guerrero

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Marilú Martínez Núñez, candidate of Movimiento Ciudadano for mayor of Cutzamala de Pinzón (Guerrero), in a campaign event.

Marilú Martínez is the Movimiento Ciudadano candidate for mayor of Cutzamala de Pinzón, a town in area of Tierra Caliente in the state of Guerrero, was kidnapped along with her whole family.

Marilú Martínez Núñez was kidnapped Tuesday night at her home along with the rest of her family. As denounced by the party’s state leadership, around 10 o’clock at night several armed men broke into the candidate’s house, taking her entire family with them. The kidnapping of Martínez adds to the wave of violence that is sweeping the country during the electoral campaign, which is officially the most violent in the history of Mexico.

The state president of the Movimiento Ciudadano, Adrián Wences Carrasco, has accused the mayor of this municipality, Timoteo Arce Solís from the PRI political party, of being behind the kidnapping. The mayor’s wife, Rosa Jaimes, is Martínez’s rival in the mayoral elections of Cutzamala de Pinzón, a town of just 5,000 inhabitants nailed to the borders of Guerrero with the State of Mexico and Michoacán. In the middle of the area known as Tierra Caliente, one of the most violent territories in the country, disputed for years by different rival criminal groups.

Movimiento Ciudadano has also denounced that, for days, Martínez had been receiving threats to abandon the candidacy. “The Tierra Caliente area is a dangerous place” Carrasco pointed out at a press conference. Two MC mayoral candidates in the region resigned during the course of the campaign and had to be replaced.

Marilú Martínez is the Movimiento Ciudadano candidate for mayor of Cutzamala de Pinzón (Photo: Radio Formula)

Less than a week before the June 6 election, the largest in the history of Mexico, in which 20,000 public offices will be elected, including the governors of 15 of the 32 states and the 500 members of the Chamber of Representatives, the electoral contest has already been marked as the most violent of all. 782 attacks on candidates and politicians have been registered, surpassing the 774 registered for the 2018 campaign, according to the consulting firm Etellekt.

35 candidates have been murdered, and the violence has skyrocketed during this electoral campaign: damage to property, kidnappings, attacks on family members, intimidation, attempted murder, beatings, seizure of offices, abuse of authority and even cases of sexual abuse against candidates have been registered.

The consulting firm, which has made a detailed record of the last eight months, explained that during this wave of violence, 737 people were injured, kidnapped, or left with the vehicle on fire. Of them, 518 were aspirants and candidates, 120 members of a party, and another 99 were elected authorities, according to figures collected up to May 30. These figures do not include half a dozen new incidents recorded between May 31 and June 1.

The kidnapping of the MC candidate in Cutzamala de Pinzón also illustrates another of the findings of the Etellekt report. The weakest link in the chain is municipal politics. It is the hardest hit, with 75% of attacks, followed by attacks against those who aspire to a state office, 16%, and, finally, 9% of attacks whose victims were candidates for federal office.

Regarding the political orientation of the attacks, 44% hit members of the opposition coalition PAN, PRI, and PRD. 28% to members of Morena, PVEM, and PT. Two candidates from Movimiento Ciudadano were assassinated during the campaign. Abel Murrieta, candidate in Cajeme, Sonora, and Alma Rosa Barragán, candidate in Moroleón, Guanajuato. Both were shot while campaigning.

Source: El Pais

The Guerrero Post