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"Quit candidacy or die," said the voice in the anonymous phone call received by Magda Rubio, a mayoral candidate for Guachochi, a small town in northern Mexico, on the road to drugs .
Crime Scene in Ciudad Juárez, June 23; political violence has increased well beyond everyday violence itself.
Later, at least three other threatening links were in progress, which required him to hire two bodyguards to accompany him 24 hours a day, as Rubio had told Reuters in April.
That same month, another mayoral candidate, Mario Alberto Chávez, who is fighting for the electoral race in the city of Zumpango, was dining in a restaurant when an armed man opened fire on his table [19659005]
But if Rubio and Chávez survived the threats of competition, it was not the case with at least one of the three presidential candidates.
122 politicians murdered during the Mexican election day, who contested over 18,000 positions – from the presidency of the republic to local administrations.
This is the bloody election campaign According to the risk consultant Etellekt, who was charged with investigating the number of murders.
The candidate Magda Rubio was threatened when she launched a candidate. Start the candidate
Photo: Reuters / BBC News Brazil
The cabinet also identified, during this period, the killing of 351 unelected officials, including 307 security forces.
The situation "anticipates a serious security challenge for peace and democratic governance in the regions with a greater presence of criminal organizations and a notable institutional weakness", says the Etellekt report
Violence against Beyond drug trafficking
Violence in general has increased in Mexico, which has been fighting drug trafficking for years. The country recorded a record 25,300 homicides last year, according to the AFP agency (still far behind Brazil, which recorded 62,500 deaths in 2016, the latest figure provided by the US government). Atlas of Violence) [19659006
"While normal violence increased by 13% last year, political violence increased by 2400% (in relation to violence against women)." [19659005] Behind that, according to Salazar, there have been government leaders who have threatened opposition candidates to politicians who, because they are linked to local mafias, retaliate with
And there are also drug cartels that ultimately determine who can or can not run for office – targeting those who campaign for
Security at the rally of a candidate in Mexico; the badyst says that behind the violence there are local mafias who benefit from the status quo and do not want alternative power
"The scenario reveals that an authoritarianism is consolidating at the regional level, in which democracy loses its strength and is replaced by bullets," Salazar explains. has faced an unprecedented security problem over the past decade, and we have today the greatest election in our history, "said Lorenzo Córdova, head of the Mexican Electoral Institute, to the press. "
Historical Elections
Various factors have made this election an exception in the history of Mexico. This is the largest election in the country's recent history, where 18,300 public positions will be renewed, including presidents, governors, mayors, local councilors, senators and parliamentarians. State and federal.
This is also the first election since the inauguration of Donald Trump in the United States, which has tightened immigration policy with the southern neighbor and promised to build a border wall, in addition to renegotiating NAFTA, the North American trade agreement.
Trump went on to say that Mexico was sending "drugs and rapists" to the United States.
Now, in the Mexican countryside, the leader is leftist Andres Manuel López Obrador, critic of Trump's policy and Mexican security policy. ] López Obrador leads the campaign with Trump's criticism and security policy "src =" https://p2.trrsf.com/image/fget/cf/460/0/images.terra.com/2018/07/ 01 / López Obrador leads the campaign with Trump's criticism and security policy "width =" 460 “/>
López Obrador leads the campaign with Trump's criticism and security policy
Photo: AFP / BBC News Brazil
Former Mayor of Mexico City, López Obrador leads opinion polls in the middle of the week with about 45% of voting intentions, against 19% of his voting intentions . closest rival, Ricardo Anaya, who leads a central coalition. The candidate in power, Jose Antonio Meade, is third.
The Mexican elections do not have a second round, so the one with the most votes wins. López Obrador, who led before and lost, is now closer to the presidency, leading with promises to fight violence and impunity and supported mainly by new voters and young university students, professionals, small entrepreneurs and workers
The security crisis threatening the candidates for the election is one of the factors that make the current president, Enrique Peña Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), obtain approval only 20% over the last few months
After spending the first year of his government approving extensive reforms in the oil and gas, telecommunications and education sectors, Peña Nieto has seen his administration involved in scandals of corruption and deterioration of public security [19659006] One of the most serious aspects of this deterioration has occurred e n 2014, when 43 Mexican students disappeared in the state of Guerrero confrontations with the police, in circumstances never completely clarified. Mexican officials say corrupt police handed the students over to drug traffickers, who killed them and burned their bodies.
Graph of homicides in Mexico
"The Mexicans are pretty much in agreement, but there is a consensus that Peña Nieto's security policy has failed," political badyst Sergio Aguayo of the Colegio de México told AFP.
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For Salazar, corruption scandals caused Peña Nieto to lose his political capital and, as a result, the ability to speak with state authorities in the fight against violence.
From there came the waves of political badbadinations.
In June, Fernando Puron Johnston, candidate for deputation to the House of Representatives, was arrested in June
. In June, for example, the mayor of Jilotlan de los Dolores, Juan Carlos Andrade Magana, is running for re-election. State of Coahuila, was killed while he was leaving a political debate in which he had promised to fight the cartel Zetas.
And this month 30 policemen from Ocampo town were arrested because they were suspected of having participated in the death of the candidate Fernando Ángeles Juárez
Victims come from different "Most of them appearing for jobs in small towns, far from the national light," he told Reuters.
The man Ángeles Juárez was candidate for the post of mayor of Ocampo and was the third politician murdered in the city in 8 days
Photo: AFP / BBC News Brazil
At least 50 parents of politicians have been murdered. On the one hand, says Salazar, the violence fueled Mexicans' desire for change, which could lead to a high turnout.
On the one hand, hundreds of candidates have announced their withdrawal from election campaigns.
On the other hand, the climate of terror threatens democracy itself – and should not end when polling stations are closed.
"There are at least seven high-risk states where violence can even interfere with, for example, stealing ballot boxes, killing or buying votes," says the badyst.
"And he It is possible that attacks continue after the elections, against the elected candidates, even before they take office. "
BBC News Brazil – All rights reserved. written permission of BBC News Brazil.
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