Police siege after the murder of Ignacio Sánchez Cordero, an aspiring candidate in Quintana Roo, in February Special Photographer / CUARTOSCURO
The electoral campaign in Mexico is anticipated as one of the most violent.
The largest elections in the history of the country have already added a dozen homicides or disappearances and 117 attacks on candidates for public office, according to the official count.
This was announced this Friday by the Secretary of Security, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, when presenting the results obtained so far with the
Protection Strategy in Electoral Context
, a plan to protect the security of politicians threatened by organized crime or face white collar to the appointment at the polls on June 6.
At least 41 candidates remain under the protection of the security forces.
The numbers are well below that reported by the Etellekt consultancy, which already counts 262 assaults and 20 assassinated aspirants.
"Crime seeks to influence the elections politically, they use complicity strategies or violent pressure, it has become a crime party," Martínez said in the daily morning conference together with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The electoral process in Mexico, which will renew 15 state governments, the entire Chamber of Deputies, local Congresses and some 2,000 mayors' offices, officially began in September of last year.
Since then, these attacks have been counted.
The 117 politicians were attacked in 103 episodes, according to the federal government.
Of the total, 71 were men and 46 were women.
The most affected applicants have been those competing for a local position.
82% of the aspirants attacked go for a municipal presidency, a local council or a position in a mayor's office.
The other 18% corresponds to attacks against candidates for federal deputies or governors.
“Our objective is to safeguard security in the electoral process so that organized crime or white collar does not decide.
It will not bow to democracy ”, added the Secretary of Security.
The security plan for this year's elections also indicates that at least 47% of the attacks are concentrated in six entities.
The State of Mexico, Veracruz, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí and Quintana Roo have become the most dangerous places to campaign.
"Fortunately, it is not a general problem that is expressed with the same intensity throughout the country," said Martínez.
The Government has ensured the registration of the attacks has been carried out through a monitoring center set up for these elections that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The latest
Report on Violence Policy
of Etellekt, cut at March 31, reported about scariest numbers that the government figures.
According to the most disappointing count, these elections are the second most violent of the century, only behind the 2018 elections, where López Obrador was elected president.
Of the twenty homicides that the consultancy has registered, 17 lost their lives at the hands of armed commandos, two by lone gunmen and one by assailants.
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