Thread: 130 Mexican Political Candidates Assassinated in 10 Months

130 Mexican Political Candidates Assassinated in 10 Months


June 28, 2018

Cartel Chronicles






Political assassinations, murders, and violence continue to escalate as Mexico’s elections approach. In the 10 months since the election cycle started, nearly 130 political candidates were murdered.

The most recent took place this week in Buena Vista Michoacan when a team of cartel gunmen shot and killed Javier Ureña Gonzalez, the acting mayor for the municipality as he visited a small village. Ureña assumed the role of acting mayor while his boss Lorenzo Barajas took leave to run for re-election.

Ureña’s murder comes one day after a Oaxaca state congressional candidate was gunned down along with four of his associates. A team of gunmen killed Emigdio Lopez Avendaño as he was visiting the town of San Vicente Coatlan in the southern part of the state.



Earlier this week, a local campaign worker in the border city of Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas, died when he drove up to the scene of a cartel gun-battle. Leonardo “El Chino” Diaz and another campaign worker were driving along the highway when they were caught in crossfire. The van that Diaz was riding in caught fire, charring his remains. In response, local candidates canceled their campaign events.


The murder in Miguel Aleman follows a drive-by shooting at the governor’s mansion in Ciudad Victoria Tamaulipas. During the attack, the gunmen fired several shots out of an SUV, injuring a police officer that was guarding the building.


Mexico is experiencing one of the bloodiest electoral cycles in history with more than 120 candidates murdered since September 2017. The most recent accounting for assassinated political candidates as of June 25 is 130, according to Etellekt.


Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “A.C. Del Angel” from Tamaulipas, “Tony Aranda” from Nuevo León, and Jose Luis Lara, a former leading member who helped start the Self-Defense Movement in Michoacán.




http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2018/...can-elections/

Mexican drug cartels are very efficient. The same drug cartels that control our borders, the same drug cartels that own lots of our politicians.

WE NEED TO SHUT THE BORDER DOWN AND REFUSE ENTRY!

PUT MEXICO, GUATEMALA, HONDURAS AND EL SALVADOR ON THE TRAVEL BAN.

NO MORE AID!

IF THEY WANT HELP, SEND IN TROOPS AND SPECIAL FORCES FOR 6 MONTHS TO TAKE THEM OUT AND GET IT OVER WITH!

THEY ARE DOMESTIC TERRORISTS WHO SHOULD RECEIVE AUTOMATIC DEALTH PENALTY WITHIN 48 HOURS OR THEY WILL NEVER MAKE A DENT IN THIS MASSIVE PROBLEM!

THEY KEEP BREEDING THESE GANG CHILDREN AND NOW THEY POUR OVER OUR BORDER!

SEND THEIR WOMEN AND CHILDREN BACK! WE DON'T WANT THEM!

Mexico appears to be a full blown Narco state that exists on drug money from cartels that are waging war on this country and remittances from illegals living here. Mexico is not now, nor has ever been a friend to this country IMO

More than 100 politicians have been murdered in Mexico ahead of Sunday’s election

• More than 100 politicians in Mexico have been killed since September in the lead-up to the country’s election this Sunday, and more than 13,000 Mexicans have been killed since January.
• In an 11 year war on drugs, Mexico has failed to control organized crime and criminal infiltration of local governments and law enforcement.
• Some 20 or so percent of voters remain undecided, and security is expected to be a major factor in how they choose to vote.

Natasha Turak | @NatashaTurak

Published 11:05 AM ET Tue, 26 June 2018 Updated 5:41 AM ET Wed, 27 June 2018CNBC.com


ULISES RUIZ | AFP | Getty Images

Guadalajara, Mexico, June 10, 2018. According to official figures, more than 200,000 people have been murdered and over 30,000 have disappeared since the government launched a controversial military offensive against organized crime in late 2006.

Violence hit a record peak in Mexico last year with over 30,000 murders — and it is not slowing down. More than 100 politicians alone have been killed in the lead-up to the country’s election this Sunday.

Public officials and activists in Mexico face deadly threats even in broad daylight. Fernando Puron, a congressional candidate in the border city of Piedras Negras, was taking a selfie with a supporter when a gunman shot him in the head from behind. He was the 112th political hopeful to be killed since September.

The deaths reveal the depth of a crisis Mexico has failed to control: organized crime and criminal infiltration of local governments and law enforcement. And ahead of this weekend’s presidential and congressional elections, no candidate has been able to offer a credible plan to fight it.

May was the deadliest month in Mexico since the government first published homicide data 20 years ago, the latest record in what’s been three straight years of increasing crime rates. According to the national registry, 2,890 people were killed in one month — roughly 93 victims per day, or four per hour. Since January, the figure is 13,298: a 21 percent increase on the same period last year.


The wave of murders, kidnappings and gang-related violence began during the administration of former president Felipe Calderon (2006-2012), who launched the government’s war against drug cartels. Organized crime, predominantly drug trafficking, exploded into broader criminal activities including theft, extortion, murder and state-level corruption, and despite billions spent and massive cash injections from the U.S., Mexico has become only more dangerous.



SCHEMIDT | AFP | Getty Images

Activists, relatives and mothers of missing people, march to demand the Mexican government answers about their loved ones whereabouts, as part of the commemoration of Mothers' Day in Mexico City on May 10, 2018. SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

“Politicians are particularly vulnerable targets of organized crimes, particularly when they do not show support (for) — or choose not to turn a blind eye to — illegal activities in the municipalities or territories that they govern or are running to govern,” said Rafael Elias, analyst at emerging markets bank Exotix Capital.

Security, and the failure of the state to adequately provide it, will be a major concern for voters as they head to the polls. And the candidate slated as most likely to win, the left-wing Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador or AMLO, as he is commonly referred to, has presented a plan of amnesty.

Voter concerns

Some 20 or so percent of voters remain undecided, and security is expected to be a major factor in how they choose to vote. “In theory, amnesty should be the least palatable,” Elias said, implying that those undecided will be more likely to vote for one of AMLO’s competitors, either Ricardo Anaya of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) or Jose Antonio Meade of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

An AMLO victory would be consequential in many ways — besides security, his aim to increase public spending and impose more regulations on businesses pose downside risks to Mexican equities, analysts say, and could even hurt Mexico’s ratings. AMLO is also expected to take a much harder line on NAFTA negotiations, potentially derailing the whole process. not want to give Jeff Bezos a seven-year head start.”

Andrés Manuel
✔@lopezobrador_

Cerramos campaña en Oaxaca con mucha gente de espíritu combativo y fraterno. Reiteré que el pueblo de Oaxaca es de los pueblos con más cultura en el mundo.
4:07 PM - Jun 16, 2018

On security, the frontrunners have only vague plans with scant detail. “AMLO has proposed an amnesty, which is consistent with the ‘hugs, not guns’ characterization of his security agenda,” said Christopher McKee, CEO of emerging markets risk forecaster PRS Group.

Anaya has proposed a continuation of the ongoing military campaign against drug cartels, which has so far shown no evidence of solving the problem. Meade has focused on targeting the cartels’ financing, a strategy McKee said could produce results over time, but would likely provoke even greater violence in the immediate term.


‘Out of control’

“Whomever governs next will still have to deal with a situation that Mexicans feel has gotten out of control,” Elias said.

Activists and ordinary citizens have expressed their frustrations at a government that has failed to keep them safe, despite more than 11 years of the war on drugs and tens of billions invested in security services. Even among the security personnel, rights groups allege vast human rights violations.

Alongside economic growth and closing the income gap between the poor and the rest of Mexico’s population, security will remain a paramount voter concern. The question, at this point, may be whether citizens believe there is any credible hope for a solution at all anymore.

Among the hundreds of politicians running for congress and local office, many remain vocal in their defiance of organized crime groups, despite being aware of the potential consequences.
During the debate he took part in just before his murder, Puron had said, “You take on crime head-on – you don’t fear it, you call it for what it is.”


https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/26/more...-election.html

Mexican Town's Entire Police Force Detained After Politician's Murder

June 25, 20184:23 PM ET
COLIN DWYER



A hearse carrying the body of slain mayoral candidate Fernando Ángeles Juárez drives to a burial site last week in Ocampo, Mexico.


Raul Tinoco/AFP/Getty Images

Typically, when a headline pairs the words "police" and "detain," it's fair to assume those police officers did the detaining. It's in their job description, after all.

But what unfolded early Sunday in the Mexican state of Michoacán wasn't exactly typical.

There, the small town of Ocampo's entire police force was disarmed and detained by state authorities. Michoacán law enforcement announced Sunday that the officers — all 27 at the department plus their chief, according to local media — "were detained for internal affairs investigation."

The state police statement added only that municipal officers will be questioned to determine whether "anyone has taken part in acts that violate the town's codes."

But Mexican publications drew a connection to last week's murder of Fernando Ángeles Juárez, a candidate for mayor in the township of roughly 24,000 people. Unidentified attackers gunned down the aspiring politician just outside his property.

Slain just a week and a half from the July 1 election, which coincides with the national presidential election, Ángeles had been preparing for his run as a member of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD.

"We call on authorities to provide protection to candidates and to punish those guilty of this deplorable act," the party said last week in a statement.

It wasn't for lack of trying that Michoacán had to wait until Sunday to perform their surprise sweep. The state police director himself had attempted to arrest the local department's chief, Oscar González García, only to be blocked and chased away by Ocampo cops, according to El Universal.

The BBC reports that González is suspected of ties to organized crime.

Authorities returned Sunday, this time with a much more sizable force — though even that couldn't prevent tussles between local police and their heavily armed state counterparts. Local media showed video images from the roundup, in which detainees' hands were tied as loud pops rang out in the background.

Ángeles' murder was followed by an unusually dramatic confrontation — but his killing is far from unusual in a country that has seen scores of politicians murdered in the past year. In fact, last Wednesday night, another mayoral candidate from another party in Michoacán was shot to death, as well.

The state's governor, Silvano Aureoles, extended his "heartfelt condolences" to that candidate's family on Wednesday night. Just over 12 hours later, Aureoles had to tender new "heartfelt condolences" to the family of Ángeles.

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/25/62315...ician-s-murder