Bullets and voting: bloody violence muddles general elections in Mexico

Sunday's parliamentary elections are the most important in the history of Mexico and also the most violent, with at least 136 politicians murdered since the beginning of the process electoral. 19659002] An image will be recorded forever from the Mexican election campaign: Fernando Purón, aspiring MP, takes a "selfie" and is immediately shot in the back.

Purón is only one of a hundred politicians who have been killed since the beginning of the electoral process in Mexico in September (28 of them were pre-candidates and 20 other candidates), according to the cabinet of Etellekt advice. A significantly higher number than in 2012, when nine politicians and one candidate were murdered.

This is just a sample – according to experts – of the bloody penetration of organized crime that seeks to gain loyalty among the authorities to take territorial control

Violence in Mexico is growing by leaps and bounds. Corps mutilated, burned, abandoned on the roads; police and military ambush; raped women, their newly discovered gorges floating in the rivers, are images that are repeated in recent years.

Figures of Fear

Only in 2017 more than 25,300 violent murders were committed, the highest figure since 1997 These crimes were committed against tourist destinations, such as Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, towards The country's most disadvantaged regions of 120 million inhabitants, of which just over 50 million are immersed in poverty.

The violence also affects journalists in a country considered one of the most dangerous to practice journalism. The authorities have informed this Saturday of the badbadination of José Guadalupe Chan in the state of Quintana Roo (east). Chan worked for the news portal Playa News and his death made him the sixth communicator killed in Mexico in 2018.

The reporter's latest report was the murder of a PRI activist in a neighboring community Friday afternoon.

 

"Money or Lead"

There is growing evidence that mafias dedicated to drug trafficking and other crimes attempt to participate in political life to influence election results, promote people who are and intimidate those who oppose them, says Guillermo Zepeda, a researcher at Colegio de Jalisco, at AFP. "It's the question of money or lead," he warns.

The powerful presence of organized crime in states such as Guerrero (south) and Michoacán (west), with a greater number of victims and threatened candidates, has penetrated the structures of local governments, as well as social and economic life. communities dependent on their illegal activities.

To this is added the establishment of clientelist networks that bring a certain benefit to the people, by establishing their influence. 19659002] "We should ask ourselves how many candidates are not killed simply because they respond to organized crime," warns Luis Carlos Ugalde, former president of the Mexican electoral authority.

Punitive Strategy

Violence Exploded in December 2006 President Felipe Calderón of the Conservative National Action Party (PAN) decided to remove the military from their barracks to confront drug traffickers .

"A punitive strategy that tried to break any glbad or communication links between drug traffickers and national and local authorities," said Ruben Salazar, director of Etellekt.

But he succeeded "was fragmenting". Since then, "countless criminal cells have appeared that are now facing an increasingly radical way of controlling territories," he explained.

For experts, the solution is not just the use of force and permanent state action in the most conflict-ridden areas. "The only real and feasible solution is that the Mexican state undermines the power of organized crime," concludes Ugalde. ( With the information of the AFP )