Mexico’s campaign season came to a bloody end on Wednesday as a gunman shot dead an aspiring mayor at a rally, days before the country is expected to elect its first female president.
The killing brings the number of candidates who have been murdered to 23 during the electoral process in the Latin American nation, an official count showed.
Alfredo Cabrera, a mayoral candidate for an opposition coalition, was gunned down in the southern state of Guerrero, causing chaos and panic among people attending the rally.
Photo: AFP
Cabrera’s murder was captured on camera, with the footage showing him smiling and flanked by fans before he was shot several times.
The state prosecutors’ office said that “the alleged assailant was killed at the scene.”
Three people were injured and two others were detained, witnesses said.
Cabrera belonged to the same opposition coalition as presidential candidate Xochitl Galvez.
“He was a generous and good man,” she wrote on X.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party, part of the opposition coalition, accused the government of having “not made even the slightest effort to guarantee the safety of the candidates.”
About 27,000 soldiers and National Guard members are to be deployed to reinforce security on election day.
Tackling cartel violence will be among the major challenges facing the next leader. More than 450,000 people have been murdered and tens of thousands have gone missing since the government deployed the army to fight drug trafficking in 2006.
Barring a major upset, a woman appears almost certain to be elected leader on Sunday.
Frontrunner Claudia Sheinbaum, from the ruling Morena party, ended her campaign with a rally in the capital.
“We’re going to make history,” Sheinbaum told the crowd.
Sheinbaum has pledged to continue Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s social programs and strategy of tackling crime at its roots — a policy that he calls “hugs not bullets.”
At her closing rally in Monterrey, Galvez promised a tougher approach to cartel-related violence.
“You will have the bravest president, a president who does confront crime,” she said.
Galvez accused Lopez Obrador of implementing “a security strategy where hugs have been for criminals and bullets for citizens.”
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