No more than 12 hours passed between the shooting of the Morenoist Miguel Ángel Zavala Reyes, and the shooting of the PAN pre-candidate, Armando Pérez Luna;
two of the people who were seeking to become the next municipal president of Maravatío, a municipality of 80,000 inhabitants in the State of Michoacán.
The State Prosecutor's Office has reported that it has launched investigations to clarify both murders, without yet mentioning the political activity that both men carried out.
This Tuesday afternoon, when questioned by the press about the communication from the Prosecutor's Office regarding the murder of the two pre-candidates, the governor of Michoacán, the Morenoist Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla, has been clear and concise: "We have not been informed at all nothing".
Ramírez Bedolla assured that any candidate in his State who needs security can approach his team to help him.
Although he made it clear that he does not have information to clarify anything about the murders of his party colleague, Zavala Reyes, and the opposition representative, Pérez Luna, he did warn about the dangers faced by those who aspire to be candidates with the support of criminal groups: “To those who aspire to elected positions, [I tell them] not to look, because it is
vox populi,
that to win an election – which is false – ask permission from some bad guy.
No, because they end up kidnapped and extorted, so don't look for the wrong way out.
It is also true that there are groups that seek to influence the decision of candidates or seek to gain power in a municipality,” he said.
This Monday afternoon, doctor Miguel Ángel Zavala Reyes was intercepted by two men who shot him while he was in his car, when he was leaving the clinic where he worked, located in the Rancho La Huerta subdivision, one kilometer from the center of the city.
Zavala Reyes was originally from Morelia, the state capital, and had announced last November his intention to run for the ruling National Regeneration Movement, Morena, for the presidency of the municipality.
President López Obrador's party has regretted the incident and has demanded an exhaustive investigation from the Prosecutor's Office: "This cowardly and deplorable act represents an irreparable loss for our movement."
Just last October 19, armed men kidnapped and shot dead Dagoberto García Reyes, a Morena leader who also aspired to the municipal presidency of Maravatío, a town located 100 kilometers from Morelia.
Approximately five hours after the attack on Zavala Reyes, during the night of this Monday two men on a motorcycle shot Armando Pérez Luna, on Jesús Romero Flores Street, in the Infonavit housing unit, as announced by the Prosecutor's Office.
Pérez Luna, a transport leader in the region and father of local councilor Andrea Pérez Solís, already had political experience - he was councilor between 2015 and 2018 - and last January he registered his candidacy for the municipal presidency of Maravatío, before the State Commission of his party.
María del Refugio Cabrera Hermosillo, president of the State Steering Committee of the PAN, in Michoacán, demanded that the authorities carry out professional investigations to clarify the facts: “Enough of the murders in Michoacán and the country!
“We demand that the governments of López Obrador and Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla—governor of Michoacán—change their erroneous strategy of hugs and not bullets,” she said.
When there are only a couple of days left until the campaign officially begins in Mexico - facing the largest electoral process in the country's history, on June 2 - there are already 21 homicides related to political-electoral violence, a figure that adds not only politicians, but also public officials and even family members related to politicians, according to the report Votar entre balas, from the organization Data Cívica: “In Mexico, electoral violence has become a tool of organized crime to influence the public life of states and municipalities.”
In this region of the State of Michoacán, the Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), La Familia Michoacana and Los Caballeros Templarios cartels operate, groups that dispute control of various illicit activities in the east of the State.
During January, at least five candidates or aspirants for elected office were murdered in Mexico.
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