Mexico City:

Mexico’s election is now the bloodiest in its modern history after a candidate running for local office in central Puebla state was murdered on Friday at a political rally, taking the number of assassinated candidates to 37 ahead of Sunday’s vote.

Jorge Huerta Cabrera, a candidate who was running for a council seat in the town of Izucar de Matamoros, was gunned down in the attack, according to the state prosecutor’s office.

The killing takes the number of assassinated candidates in the 2024 election season to 37, one more than during the 2021 midterm election when 36 candidates were killed, according to data from security consultancy Integralia.

The issue of violent crime has emerged as one of the top issues in this year’s presidential contest, in which the ruling party of outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been forced to defend a persistently high murder rate, as the opposition has sought to use the bloodshed to argue for change.

Ruling party hopeful Claudia Sheinbaum is widely expected to win Sunday’s vote and become Mexico’s first female president.

“It’s possible that violence is being used as a means to define the election in advance, particularly when certain interests are perceived to be at risk in the event that a particular political project triumphs,” said Armando Vargas, an Integralia researcher.

The consultancy has also counted 828 non-lethal attacks on candidates during the current election season, up from 749 since just Monday.

Analysts point to Mexico’s mix of powerful drug cartels and often corrupt local governments as contributing to the dangers faced by candidates.

Earlier this week, a local mayoral candidate in southern Guerrero state was gunned down at point-blank range during a campaign rally.

He was among 560 candidates and election officials who have been given security guards by the government due to persistent threats.

Friday’s grisly assassination was captured on video, with mayhem erupting at the rally after the shots rang out.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Members of the National Guard guard the crime scene of the Mayoral candidate of the Opposition coalition of the PAN, PRD, PRI parties, Alfredo Cabrera, who was murdered during the closing of his electoral campaign in the town of Las Lomas, municipality of Coyuca de Benitez in the state of Guerrero on May 29, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

“An aspiring Mayor was shot dead in southern Mexico on May 29 during a campaign rally,” the Guerrero state Governor said, the latest in a string of attacks ahead of weekend elections.

A video published by local media showed a person approaching Alfredo Cabrera and shooting him several times, causing chaos and panic among people attending the event. Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado condemned the “cowardly” murder of Cabrera, a candidate for an Opposition coalition in the town of Coyuca de Benitez.

Writing on social media platform X, she said she had asked the state prosecutor’s office to bring “the full weight of the law against the person or persons responsible.” The prosecutor’s office later announced that the alleged attacker had been killed at the scene.

The government said on Tuesday that at least 22 people running for local office had been murdered since last September. Some non-governmental organisations have reported an even higher number, including Data Civica, which has counted around 30 murders of local politicians.

“On Tuesday, a Mayoral candidate in the central state of Morelos was murdered while another one was wounded by gunfire in western Jalisco state,” authorities said. The PRI, one of the Opposition coalition parties, accused the government of having “not made even the slightest effort to guarantee the safety of the candidates.”

Around 27,000 soldiers and National Guard members will be deployed to reinforce security on Sunday, when Mexicans will vote for a new President, members of Congress, several state Governors and myriad local officials.

Mexico City:

Mexican ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, a cool-headed scientist dubbed the “ice lady” by her rivals, is the front-runner to lead a country known for its passion, tragedy and machismo culture.

The left-wing ex-Mexico City mayor with a serious demeanor and a PhD in energy engineering is the favorite in the polls to triumph on June 2 and become Mexico’s first woman president.

The granddaughter of Bulgarian and Lithuanian Jewish migrants, Sheinbaum is riding high on the popularity of outgoing left-wing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a close ally and mentor.

Sheinbaum was born in Mexico City to parents caught up in the turmoil of the early 1960s, when students and other activists were seeking to end the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s long grip on power.

“At home, we talked about politics morning, noon and night,” the 61-year-old was quoted as saying in a recent biography.

Guillermo Robles, a former classmate at the prestigious National Autonomous University of Mexico, remembers Sheinbaum as a serious student.

“Neither she nor I were that into socializing with everyone,” he said.

Sheinbaum’s magnetism as a young woman lay in her left-wing political convictions, Robles said, adding that her commitment did not waver even when she was pregnant.

“She never said ‘I can’t’. She always went, especially to the rallies,” Robles said.

Sheinbaum also spent several years as a researcher in California, where she honed her English language skills.

She was a contributing author for the United Nations’ Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Her first public role was as Mexico City environment minister in the early 2000s.

Earthquake, metro collapse

Sheinbaum’s political career has been marked by controversy and tragedy at times.

In 2017, a powerful earthquake caused a school to collapse in a southern Mexico City district where she was local mayor, killing 26 people including 19 children.

Sheinbaum denied that irregularities in the construction were her office’s responsibility, and went on to be elected mayor of the entire capital the following year.

Her use of scientific methods and technological tools was seen in Mexico City’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, though it did not prevent a high mortality rate.

“She has an impressive capacity for analysis, reading data and finding very practical solutions,” said Tatiana Clouthier, a former economy minister who is now a spokesperson for her campaign.

“Despite being a scientist, she is something of a social fighter, which makes a very good combination of heart and mind,” Clouthier added.

In 2021, while Sheinbaum was Mexico City mayor, disaster struck again when a section of elevated metro track collapsed, killing 27 people and injuring dozens.

Sheinbaum rejected accusations that budget cuts were to blame.

She negotiated with the construction company owned by magnate Carlos Slim that built the line to obtain compensation for victims and avoid lawsuits.

“Governing is about making decisions. You have to make a decision and assume the pressures that can come from it,” Sheinbaum said.

During a series of heated election debates, an unflappable Sheinbaum avoided looking at her main opponent Xochitl Galvez or even calling her by name, despite a barrage of accusations.

Galvez branded Sheinbaum “cold and heartless,” saying she lacked sympathy for child cancer patients and earthquake victims.

“I would call you the ice lady,” Galvez said.

Sheinbaum has shown a warmer side at times, kissing and hugging supporters, and revealing a nerdy sense of humor in TikTok videos.

She shared videos with the news of her marriage in November 2023 to her university sweetheart, Jesus Tarriba.

Robles, who has known Sheinbaum for 37 years, said success had never gone to her head.

“She does have love for Mexico. She’s not ambitious like many politicians. Claudia is not even remotely like traditional politicians,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mexico City:

Mexico is on course to elect its first woman president this weekend, with two front-runners competing to break the highest political glass ceiling in a country with a history of gender violence and inequality.

Ruling-party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum and opposition hopeful Xochitl Galvez, both 61, have dominated the presidential race in the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking country, home to 129 million people.

The only man running, Jorge Alvarez Maynez, is trailing far behind with just days left before the Sunday vote.

“It’s a huge change,” said Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a professor at George Mason University, in the United States.

“A woman president will be an inspiration for women in every single sector of the economy, politics, society and culture,” she told AFP.

Sheinbaum owes much of her popularity to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a close ally who has an approval rating of more than 60 percent but is only allowed to serve one term.

A former Mexico City mayor and a scientist by training, Sheinbaum has 55 percent of voter support, according to a poll average compiled by research firm Oraculus.

Galvez, an outspoken senator and businesswoman with Indigenous roots who represents a broad coalition of opposition parties, has 33 percent.

Maynez, 38, of the small Citizens’ Movement party, has just 12 percent.

The longshot centrist resumed campaigning Saturday after suspending activities for several days following a stage collapse at one of his rallies that left nine people dead.

Cartels, trade, migration

Mexico’s next president will face an array of challenges, including managing migration, delicate relations with the neighboring United States and criminal violence that has left more than 450,000 people dead and tens of thousands missing since 2006.

Around 30 candidates for local office have been murdered in a wave of electoral violence since last September, in a country where politics, corruption and crime are closely intertwined.

“The ominous spread of organized crime and flourishing cartels is the most daunting problem Sheinbaum will need to confront” if elected, said Michael Shifter, a researcher and former president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.

Whoever wins, it will likely be business as usual for the cartels that control swaths of the country and smuggle vast amounts of cocaine, fentanyl and other drugs into the United States, experts predict.

“They’re not going to change their attitude just because Mexico has a female president,” Correa-Cabrera said.

Sheinbaum has pledged to continue Lopez Obrador’s strategy of tackling crime at its roots — a controversial strategy that the left-wing populist calls “hugs not bullets.”

Galvez, who often evokes her childhood story of growing up in a poor, rural town in central Mexico, has vowed a tougher approach, declaring “hugs for criminals are over.”

Another major challenge will be Mexico’s complex relationship with the United States, particularly if former president Donald Trump is reelected in November, Shifter said.

“If he returns to the White House, Trump is expected to double down on his hardline stance on immigration, trade and drugs — very sensitive issues crucial to the bilateral relationship,” he said.

Femicide epidemic

While Mexican women enjoy growing success in politics and business, gender violence remains a major problem in a country where around 10 women are murdered every day.

And while millions of Mexicans have escaped poverty in recent years, more than a third still live below the poverty line, official figures showed last year.

Mexico has Latin America’s second-biggest economy, but many people rely on informal jobs to scrape together a living.

“One of the things that most affects us young people is work and obviously insecurity,” said Fatima Gonzalez, a 20-year-old vendor in a town near Mexico City who admires Xochitl’s “authenticity.”

Having a woman president will not transform the lives of ordinary Mexican women overnight, Correa-Cabrera said.

“Inequality affecting women, particularly in the poorest segments of society, is not going to change just because we have a female president who represents the elite and privileged,” she said.

As well as voting for a new president, Mexicans will choose members of Congress, several state governors and myriad local officials.

In total, more than 20,000 positions are being contested. Nearly 100 million people are registered to vote.

Ricardo Escobar, 20, hopes that a Sheinbaum presidency will bring benefits in terms of education and scholarships.

“We did well with the current government,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)