Brian McDonald
Two attacks against mayoral candidates in Mexico’s June elections left nine people dead in the southern state of Chiapas, the prosecutor’s office in the region plagued by organized crime said on Sunday.
The two candidates survived, although both were injured, in the attacks on Saturday night and early Sunday morning in the municipalities of Villa Corzo It is Mapastepecsaid in a statement.
The attack in Mapastepec targeted the car driving Nicolás Noriega, who is running for head of the municipal government. Noriega confirmed the attack to the Associated Press and said he was injured and at least five people of his campaign were shot dead.
Running for the country’s ruling party, Morena did not give further details and was visibly shaken after the attack. Photos shared by local media showed a red truck dotted with bullet holes and bloodied bodies in the trunk and on the ground.
“I deeply regret the death of my friends, whose lives were taken in a cowardly way. Evil will never reign in our hearts, because there are more of us who love life, who think about doing good,” she said. Noriega posted on Facebook Sunday. “I ask all of society to come together to honor life.”
The attacks marked an escalation of violence in Chiapas against politicians who intend to run for public office in the June 2 vote, when Mexicans will also elect a new president.
Last week, six people, including a minor candidate and mayor Lucero Lopez, were killed in an ambush after a campaign rally in the municipality of La Concordia, neighboring Villa Corzo.
More than two dozen politicians have been killed since September last year, according to the NGO Data Civica – including a candidate for mayor who was shot dead last month as soon as she started the campaign.
The number of victims increases to more than 50 people if family members and other victims of these attacks are included.
O Public Ministry said The attack in Villa Corzo targeted a motorcade carrying Mayor Robertony Orozco, who is seeking re-election with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party.
Three people died in the attack and another later in hospital.
Orozco was shot in both legs, the statement said.
President of Mexico denies that “Chiapas is on fire”
The spiral of criminal violence has seen more than 450,000 people murdered in Mexico since the government of then-president Felipe Calderón launched a controversial military offensive against drug cartels in 2006.
The homicide rate has almost tripled to 23 cases per 100,000 inhabitants since then.
Many Mexicans see insecurity as the most pressing challenge facing the next government, according to polls.
Election campaigns in Chiapas are often violent, but the situation has deteriorated due to a war between the Jalisco Nova Geração and Sinaloa cartels, in a region known as La Frailesca, which includes Villa Corzo and La Concordia.
Cartels fight for drug trafficking routes and control of other criminal enterprises, such as extortion.
Mapastepec is a key strategic area due to its proximity to the Pacific coast.
Last week, 11 people were killed in mass shootings in a village in the municipality of Chicomuselo, Chiapas.
It is also the same area where in April Morena’s presidential candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, was intercepted by masked men during a tour of the border with Guatemala.
Victoria Razo for the Washington Post via Getty Images
Due to its strategic location, Chiapas is one of the three Mexican states with the highest levels of electoral violence, with 55 victims so far, according to Mexican consultancy Integralia. It is second only to Guerrero and Michoacán, two states at the center of the Mexican cartel war.
The rise in violence in Chiapas proved embarrassing for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador when he visited the border state on Friday for a meeting with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo. López Obrador.
Obrador refused to confront drug cartels and largely downplayed the problem of violence.
“There are those who claim that Chiapas is on fire, no, as I already explained, the problem is in this region and we are going to solve it,” Obrador said during a press conference in Tapachula, Chiapas, on Friday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
