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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 September, when the electoral process began.
An image will be recorded forever from the Mexican election campaign: an aspiring MP takes a "selfie" and is immediately shot in the back.
Fernando Purón, candidate for the position of federal deputy for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), was murdered when a photo was taken with a sympathizer leaving a debate in which he spoke several times about the fight that was going on. he led against Los Zetas, one of the most brutal cartels of Mexico when he was mayor of Piedras Negras, Coahuila
Purón is only one Of the 136 politicians who were murdered since the start of the electoral process in September Mexico (28 of them were pre-candidates and 20 other candidates), according to Etellekt consultancy.
A significantly higher number than the one recorded in 2012, when nine politicians and one candidate were killed, he adds.
This is only one sample – according to experts – of the bloody penetration of organized crime that seeks to gain loyalty among the authorities to gain territorial control and access public resources.
Thus, they have guarantees that they "obey their instructions as a hitman or organized crime". AFP Luis Carlos Ugalde, consultant and former president of the Mexican Electoral Authority
"They think that a politician is not going to compromise, negotiate, give in, they kill him", underlines -t it.
Violence in Mexico is growing by leaps and bounds. Corps mutilated, burned, abandoned on the roads; police and military ambush; women raped, beheaded found floating in the rivers, are images that are repeated in recent years.
– "Silver or lead" –
There is more and more evidence that mafias engage in drug trafficking According to Guillermo Zepeda, a researcher at Jalisco College, politics, especially at the municipal level, influence the election results, promote people who look like them and intimidate those who oppose it
"It is as such The powerful presence of organized crime in states like Guerrero (south) and Michoacán (west), with a greater number of victims and threatened candidates, has imbued local government structures, as well as social and economic life in communities dependent on their illegal activities.
39, adds the establishment of clientelist networks that bring a certain benefit to the poor, regulating their influence.The response to those who oppose their interests is always aggressive.
"We should ask ourselves how many candidates are not killed simply because they respond to organized crime, that's the biggest problem, "warns Ugalde. they committed in 2017, the highest figure since the official recount of the Ministry of the Interior in 1997.
These crimes were committed against tourist destinations, such as Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, in the regions the most depressed in the country. country of 120 million inhabitants, of which a little more than 50 million are immersed in poverty
– "Punitive strategy" –
The violence exploded when, in December 2006, President Felipe Calderón Conservative Party The National Action Party (PAN) has decided to remove the army from its barracks to confront drug traffickers.
developed "a punitive strategy with which he tried to break up any type of communications vessel or link between drug traffickers and local and state authorities," said Rubén Salazar, director of Etellekt.
At the same time, he sought to "corral" the big drug cartels, "continued the expert.
The only thing he realized was to fragment them. Since then, "countless criminal cells have emerged that are now facing an increasingly radical way of controlling territories and roads," he explained.
For the researcher on security at Colegio de Mexico Sergio Aguayo, the "complicity between officials and criminals" never stopped.
"I do not remember another country in the world where organized crime has reached as much power as in Mexico ," added the author of the report "El Yugo Zeta. "
For the experts, the solution is not only the use of force but also the attention and permanent action of the state in the poorest areas and the most conflictual. The only real and achievable solution is that the Mexican state undermines the strength of organized crime, "concludes Ugalde.
Source: AFP
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