The Day Cartel de Sinaloa Stole The Election

 "Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

There was not a single lawyer willing to bring the facts to court. The local PRI decided to turn the page on this inconvenient incidence 

Several vehicles with armed men closed in on them. It was June 5, 2021, a day before the midterm elections to renew governor, deputies and city councils.

She, a candidate for local deputy for a district of Cuuliacán, Sinaloa, had just left an alleged meeting with other members of her party. Supposed, because no one, or almost none, made it to the appointment.

The candidate approached her car with a bad feeling. Upon arriving at the board meeting she had seen vehicles, men in black, long faces. She had perceived a climate of unrest that was accentuated when someone ordered a state commander to escort her home.

There were rumors that the Sinaloa Cartel was "kidnapping" the political operators of the PRI, in order to prevent them from mobilizing their bases. Many had decided to stay "guarded" in their homes, but in the end these precautions proved useless.

A few streets away, at a traffic light, two vehicles were ahead of her that didn’t allow her to advance further. Soon two others appeared on the sides, and one further back.

There were lights, screams, the slamming of doors. They pointed a high-powered weapon at her, forced her to open the door. The first thing they did was take her cell phone.

The commander who followed her got out of his car with a grenade in his hand. "If it comes to it we’ll all fucking die here!" he shouted. The sound of firearms being chambered could be heard: they were like 20 men.

The commander was subdued. The candidate was put in one of the vehicles with her head down. They hit her to stay still.

"Let's go, let's go!"

They were carrying someone else inside the vehicle. He came tied and with his face taped. The candidate noticed that there were three other people in the trunk.

"Name," they asked. What do you do?"

They spoke on the radio. Someone ordered her to be taken somewhere.

"Deputy, you're going to be fine," they told her. She also had her face duct taped.

"The boss personally came just to talk to you," someone warned. He was the same guy who had commented to her in the van: "You smell beautiful."

The boss was aggressive. He told her that the operation was "to avoid the purchase of votes and not to commit electoral crimes."

He questioned her:

"Who is your boss? Who were you with? Where were you going? Who was waiting for you? Tell me names or would you rather not say anything."

That night, the Sinaloa Cartel toured throughout Culiacán to deactivate PRI operators. They asked where the money was to mobilize and feed people the next day. They asked who else was part of the PRI structure and where they were at that time.

It was initially estimated that 20 operators were "kidnapped" by operatives of the Cartel. But given the magnitude of the mobilization that night, the kidnapped could be up to a hundred.

A second boss arrived. He apologized, untied her. "It can get ugly if you don't help us. You have a lot of future, cooperate for your own good so that you are aligned with us." One more boss arrived. It seemed as if he was higher in the structure than everyone else. He was kind, warm, polite. He had a young voice.

"Deputy, I'm very sorry. Are you okay? Did they behave well? Did they do anything to you?"

He added:

"We're going to let you go, we're going to return your things (the bag, the computer, the phone, her identifications had been taken away: in the end they didn't return anything). I'm sorry about your candidacy, but unfortunately this has already decided."

They left her at dawn in the vicinity of a shopping center. The others were held until shortly before the closing of the booths. They were finally released on a road and given a hundred pesos each to take a taxi.

None of the "kidnapped victims" wanted to denounce. There was not a single lawyer willing to take the facts to the competent court. The local PRI decided that the best thing, "for security," was to turn this page in their lives.

Those involved were asked to keep quiet. Some of them believe, however, that the truth is too bright to keep covered and that what happened that night will have consequences in Sinaloa life.

Morena-PAS's candidate for governor, Rubén Rocha Moya, swept 56.60 percent of the votes. Jesús Estrada Ferreiro, mayoral candidate for the same coalition, obtained an advantage of more than 10,300 votes over his closest competitor.

That day, the narco voted. The cartel stole the election.

El Universal