A candidate for mayor of a town in northern Mexico was murdered this Friday, the same day that authorities reported the murder of another candidate for local office in the south of the country, according to AP.
With these two deaths,
there are already 25 candidates murdered in the last two months in the middle of the electoral process
(as reported by Noticias Telemundo), which will culminate with the voting on June 2 and which some analysts predict could be the most violent of the recent history of Mexico.
One of those murdered is Noé Ramos Ferretiz, who was running for re-election as mayor of El Mante, a municipality in the border state of Tamaulipas, by the opposition coalition formed by the National Action Party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the of the Democratic Revolution.
Electoral violence in Mexico: an attack every day on average
“We condemn the cowardly murder,” said Alejandro Moreno, president of the PRI on his social networks. “We reiterate the call to the authorities to guarantee the protection of candidates on this election day. “We will not allow violence to decide the election!”
The Tamaulipas prosecutor's office confirmed that the politician had suffered an attack but without giving more details. Local media indicated that he had been stabbed and published photos showing a bloody body lying on a sidewalk.
Tamaulipas borders Texas, has intense organized crime activity and has been suffering from turf wars between cartels for years. El Mante is located in the south of the state but is a strategic step on the way to the border.
The violence does not stop
On the other hand, in the south of the country, in an area also plagued by organized crime, Alberto Antonio García, a candidate for a candidacy for the municipality of San José Independencia, in Oaxaca, was murdered, the electoral institute reported this Friday in a statement. of that state.
García and his wife, Agar Cancino, mayor of that town, were last seen on Wednesday. The Oaxacan prosecutor's office had said that it was carrying out search work for the couple. Cancino was found alive.
On June 2, Mexico celebrates the largest elections in its history with voting for more than 20,000 positions in addition to the Presidency of the Republic, eight governorships and the mayor of Mexico City, and 628 federal congressmen.
A study by the civil associations Data Cívica and México Evalúa indicated that 77% of the attacks suffered by politicians in the last six years corresponded to people who were in municipal positions.
The Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, said this week that security has been provided to 250 federal candidates, while 23 declined protection. Rodríguez recalled that the security of local candidates is in the hands of the state governments.