May 2018: The Deadliest Month in Mexico Since 1997

Posted by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Telesurtv

                                      The World Watches Mexico's Violent Election Process
June 24, 2018

According to the national registry, 2,890 people have been murdered so far this year, which translates to roughly 93 victims per day or 4 per hour.

With just 10 days to Mexico's July 1 presidential elections, a new report shows violence has reached a new peak with almost 3,000 murders committed last month alone, the National Public Security System said Thursday.

There has been a total of 2,890 murders, which translates to roughly 93 victims per day or four every hour: the highest homicide rate since 1997.

Since January, a total of 13,298 people have been murdered in Mexico: a 21 percent increase on the same period last year.

Violence has permeated every corner of the country, although the highest concentration per 100,000 residents occurred in Colima, Baja California, Guerrero, Chihuahua and Guanajuato.

In 2017, a total of 28,710 murders were committed. The National Citizen Observatory predicts the rate will grow by 5.5 percent, while femicide is likely to increase by 15 percent. So far this year 328 femicides have been reported, compared to 153 victims in 2015.

The report comes as Mexico battles the most violent electoral process in its history. According to consulting firm Etellekt, there have been 121 murders and 400 attacks against politicians since September 2017.

Out of the victims, 29 were precandidates and 16 candidates, and 80 of them belonged to opposition parties. The rest were mayors, former mayors, militants, social leaders, councilors or representatives. The same firm also recorded 351 murders against non-elected government officers.

President of the National Association of Mayors, Enrique Vargas del Villar, stressed the importance of collaboration with the Interior Ministry to create a "security protocol" to protect candidates campaigning for municipal government positions.

More Mayoral Candidates Murdered Days Before Elections:

PRD Candidate Fernando Angeles Juarez

Yet another Mexican candidate was murdered on early Thursday morning, just days ahead of the July 1 general elections, bringing the total number of politicians killed since September 2017 to 121, making this the most violent electoral season in Mexico's history.

Fernando Angeles Juarez was shot dead leaving his hotel Posada del Bosque in the state of Michoacan on Thursday morning, June 21. Angeles Juarez, the Mayoral candidate for the Democratic Revolution Party in Ocampo, was gunned down and he died at the scene and no suspects have yet been identified.

Another Mexican Candidate Killed: Omar Gomez Lucatero

Hours before, Omar Gomez Lucatero, an independent candidate for Mayor of Aguililla in Michoacan, was murdered Wednesday night next to the local cemetery, close to a military barracks.

The governor of Michoacan vowed to carry out detailed investigations to find the people responsible:

“I express my firm compromise to find the people responsible of the murder of Omar Gomez Lucatero, a Mayoral candidate for the Aguililla municipality, in events that took place a few moments ago, and bring them to justice.”

According to local newspapers, Gomez was shot dead exiting his home in Las Palomas community, in Tierra Caliente. The region is located between the states of Mexico, Guerrero and Michoacan, and is plagued with criminal organizations, including the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion and the Nueva Familia Michoacana cartel.

In a video uploaded to social media, the cousin of Gomez Lucatero says an armed group arrived at the candidate's house and forced everybody to leave before executing him. He blames the local candidate of the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI), Osvaldo Maldonado, for the murder.

Gomez was running as an independent candidate after he left the PRI. He became the Mayor of Aguililla shortly afterward in 2014 when Jose Cruz Valencia was arrested and had to leave office.

Another political candidate in Mexico has been killed by gun wounds, this time in a small town in the state of Guanajuato:

Jesus Nolasco Acosta, who was running for substitute alderman on the Morena ticket in the town of San Juan de Abajo was shot at least four times over the weekend as he was riding on his motorcycle.

Ricardo Sheffield, who is running for the Guanajuato governorship for the same political coalition posted on his facebook:

"I send my deepest condolences to the family and friends of our companion, Jesus Nolasco Acosta, substitute candidate for alderman, murdered last night. ... He is the second Morena coalition candidate to be killed, and joins the more than 1,300 victims of intentional homicides that have turned Guanajuato into the most violent state of Mexico."

Gubernatorial candidate Sheffield, and previously Acosta, is of the leftist Morena coalition headed by the presidential candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, popularly know as AMLO.

AMLO  is leading in the polls and has continually vowed to end Mexico's entrenched political corruption and condemns the rampant violence in the country's election campaigns. He is running on a platform that promotes curbing inequality and favoring redistribution.    

Since September 2017 at least 114 candidates running in the July 1 Mexican elections have been killed, making it the bloodiest election campaign in Mexico's modern history, and it's only getting worse in the electoral run-up. Michael Lettieri, a Senior Research Fellow for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs said: "The risk going forward is that there will be reluctance to participate in local politics because it has become so dangerous."

The Mayoral candidate for Leon, Guanajuato’s largest city, Ernesto Oviedo said in an email: "I’m sorry to hear that the candidate for substitute alderman, ... Jesus Monserrat Nolasco Acosta was robbed of his life in an assault. I’m confident the authorities will resolve this crime."