Crime against politicians skyrockets before the start of the campaign in Mexico

The electoral process in Mexico has not yet officially begun and is already tinged with blood.

At least 33 people from the world of politics, a large part of them aspiring to some position in the elections on June 2, have been murdered in the first two months of 2024. The statistics have begun to raise alarms, for fear of that this year's elections become the most violent in the country's history, figures that are usually exceeded in each election to the polls.

Only this Monday they murdered two candidates for the municipal presidency of Maravatío, in Michoacán.

The campaign starts this Friday and the attacks have not stopped intensifying.

Those who keep track of the violence point out that in addition to homicides, kidnappings, disappearances, shootings and death threats have been recorded in at least 14 States.

Insecurity in Mexico, one of the pending issues of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, faces one of those political moments in which it flourishes most strongly.

This year, Mexico elects 20,708 public positions, including the Presidency, governorships, local and federal Congresses, municipal presidencies, councilors and trusteeships.

And with the elections, the violence figures tend to worsen.

Miguel Ángel Reyes Zavala, murdered this Monday in Michoacán.Dr.

Zavala

The first indicators for this year are along those lines.

In January alone, according to the organization Data Cívica, 35 attacks or threats against current or former officials were recorded.

In 21 cases, the victims lost their lives.

The data for February is not closed yet, but the preliminary figures, which only count until February 10, indicate that the murders of political figures would reach 33, according to what the organization told this newspaper.

The count made by the consulting firm Etellekt in the 2021 elections indicated that at least 35 candidates were murdered, while in the last presidential elections, those of 2018, the number of fatalities reached 48.

The role that organized crime plays in violence is a constant factor.

Sometimes he is the one who pulls the trigger, sometimes he is simply involved in the dispute over local powers.

This guarantees its share of power with all the competing parties.

A recent analysis carried out by the College of Mexico, on 32 murders committed in the 2021 elections, indicates that candidates are killed to influence the outcome of elections, either to prevent a certain candidate from succeeding or to discourage citizens from participating. in the vote.

Violence transcends all political colors and various levels of government, but it is most viciously concentrated at local levels.

The last attack, or the last two, had an impact on the lives of two candidates for the same municipal presidency, that of Maravatío.

Miguel Ángel Zavala Reyes, from Morena, and Armando Pérez Luna, from the PAN, were attacked by gunfire in the streets of the municipality of the State of Michoacán just about five hours apart.

Zavala Reyes was shot in his car when he was leaving the clinic where he worked, located one kilometer from the city center.

And Pérez Luna was shot by two men on a motorcycle in an Infonavit housing unit.

Police and experts work at the site of the murder of Jorge Monreal Martínez in Fresnillo (State of Zacatecas), on February 10. Special Photographer (CUARTOSCURO)

At the beginning of February, the drama touched the family of Ricardo Monreal.

First it was his brother-in-law.

Juan Pérez Guardado, who worked as director of Social Development of the Fresnillo City Council, in Zacatecas, was attacked by gunfire when he was working in a median on the municipality's central avenue.

He was followed by the nephew of the Morena senator and the state governor, David Monreal, just four days after that attack.

On February 11, Jorge Antonio Monreal, also a municipal official, was shot dead outside his home.

The list of political deaths in February also includes that of Yair Romero, a candidate for federal representative for Morena in the State of Mexico.

They attacked him and his brother with bullets on February 10 and left their lifeless bodies lying in the middle of the street in the municipality of Ecatepec, one of the most unsafe in that entity.

And that of Jaime Vera, candidate for mayor of the Mascota municipality, in Jalisco, who was shot on the morning of February 1.

The man, 62 years old, belonged to the Green Party.

The State of Morelos is also under fire.

Councilor Alfredo Giovanni Lezama, of the PAN, was attacked on January 5 in a gym in Cautla by a lone shooter who entered the site and shot him five times.

That same day, in Chiapas, where organized crime has established itself more comfortably in recent months, the death of David Rey González was added.

The representative of the opposition Frente Amplio por México sought to compete for the mayor of Suchiate.

The armed commando shot him four times when he was traveling near the border with Guatemala.

A third homicide took place that same gray Friday.

Sergio Hueso, Citizen Movement candidate for mayor in Colima, was attacked by gunfire in the state capital.

In Guerrero, a married couple of politicians was also murdered on January 24.

Marcelino Ruiz Esteban, former mayor of Atlixtac, and his wife, Guadalupe Guzmán, PRD advisor, were victims of an armed attack at night.

They were traveling in their truck on the highway when they were shot.

In Michoacán, LGBT rights activist and defender Miriam Ríos was shot on January 6 while she was working at a commercial stall.

She was the municipal commissioner of Citizen Movement in the city of Jacona.

Forensic services in the restaurant where Ricardo Taja Ramírez, PRI politician, was murdered on December 21. Carlos Alberto Carbajal (Cuartoscuro)

Trans activist Samantha Gómez Fonseca was murdered on January 15 while leaving a visit to a prison in Mexico City.

The former Senate candidate for Morena was shot several times when she was traveling in a car in the Xochimilco mayor's office.

The list of fatalities includes José Naredo García, leader of the PRD in Veracruz, who was shot to death in the municipality of Cuitláhuac on January 27.

A commando first tried to kidnap him, but when they failed, they shot him multiple times.

The count, which seems too long, does not even cover those who died last year, because the electoral process began irregularly many months ago.

Next Friday the campaign officially starts and there will be three months ahead that are expected to be intense.

The different opposition groups, at the federal level, but also at the local level, have demanded security measures and that the elections be guaranteed to be calm.

The Government, together with the National Electoral Institute, have tried to put forward a plan to take care of the candidates, which so far has proven to be insufficient.

The proposal, which included larger or smaller escorts depending on the risk that the applicants ran, is supposed to have been in place for two weeks.

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