How is it possible that presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum’s security team let her get to a checkpoint? Pacific Cartel in Chiapas installed for weeks? How is it possible, with the fresh memory of the murder of Luis Donaldo Colosio at a rally in a risk area in Tijuana, in conditions of risk lower than those faced by Sheinbaum in Motozintla, that his security team acted with such irresponsibility?
Both Sheinbaum and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador have tried to minimize the episode, absurdly accusing it of a montage by Latinus, the hypercritical digital media of power. darkhiding the unconcealable: the political violence we are experiencing, where attacks, kidnappings and murders of candidates for popularly elected positions accumulate every week, has made this process, according to the consulting firm Integralia, the most lethal in history from Mexico.
The National Electoral Institute reported that as of Wednesday, 360 candidates had requested protection for security reasons, of which 300 are competing at the federal level – Presidency, Congress and Senate –, and 60 at the local level. According to Millennium, the request for security rose by 44% during the last week. The fear is patent. Integralia reported in its update on electoral violence that there are 15 states at risk of intervention by organized crime, of which 12 are governed by Morena, two by the PAN and one by Movimiento Ciudadano.
Although political violence is transversal and has affected all parties and candidates, it can be understood that there are so many entities headed by Morena and its allies because, except in Mexico City – which is not in those 15 entities –, there has been applied López Obrador’s policy of containing without fighting, inhibiting but not confronting criminal organizations. López Obrador’s strategy has been catastrophic. So far this six-year term, according to the daily record of the consulting firm TResearch, there have been 185,169 intentional homicides, which total more murders than in 12 years of PAN governments.
When Felipe Calderón’s demonized government took office, there were 80 municipalities controlled by drug cartels. Today, there are at least 750 where the authority and those who provide security, establish market rules and collect taxes, are criminal organizations. In this context, the largest electoral contest we have ever seen is taking place, where despite the background of the 2021 elections, when organized crime operated in favor of Morena candidates on the Pacific coast, the Mexican State is either not ready to face that challenge, or is there a part of that corpus who is in complicity with drug cartels.
A warning of this came from the opposition candidate, his sympathizers. Chiapas, which is experiencing a war in the municipalities near the border with Guatemala between the Pacific cartels and Jalisco New Generationis among the “very high risk” states during the elections due to the presence and possible intervention of organized crime, according to Integralia.
In their category are Colima – where the same cartels that fight in Chiapas confront each other – and Jalisco – controlled by the Jalisco New Generation Cartelbut in a stage of decomposition and fragmented into three – and Michoacán – where they seek territorial control Jalisco New Generation, The Michoacan Family, The New Michoacan Family melted into The Viagras and an organization affiliated with them and the Pacific Cartel, United Cartels–. Classified as “high risk” are Baja California, Chihuahua, State of Mexico, Guanajuato, Sonora, Tabasco, Veracruz and Zacatecas, where in addition to practically the previous organizations, the cartels are added. del Golfo, the Northeast, Santa Rosa de Lima and Los Zetas.
Criminal organizations are in their own war, without any control and with almost complete impunity. The latest report from the civil organization Data Cívica from its project Votar entre Balas, indicates that in the current electoral process, which began in September of last year, 30 political murders have been recorded, among candidates, their families and officials. Only the recent high-impact murders made those who aspire to elected office think that their lives, if they do not make a pact with criminals, are really at risk. The numbers are persuasive.
Integralia counted 386 events between September 7 and April 21, of which 501 victims resulted. That is, 2.2 per day, which refer to threats, kidnappings, attacks and murders. Acts of intimidation, which have led candidates to withdraw from the race, are not included. In Michoacán alone, at least 22 candidates for a popularly elected position decided to resign in the face of insecurity and violence in the state. The last one was done on Wednesday by Luis Lorenzo Martínez, candidate for mayor of Zacapu for the opposition coalition, who irrevocably resigned due to “health problems.”
Official data do not record the death threats that several candidates have received, which are kept secret by the federal government, against an important opposition politician and against a controversial Morena figure. There is also fear from the authorities that there will be violent action against analysts critical of López Obrador, and at least two of them were offered protection.
Political violence is overflowing and there is no real possibility that the authorities, federal or local, can protect anyone who requests it. There is no money or human capacity, and the way in which the empowerment of the cartels was allowed, with the support of some politicians to appropriate swaths of Mexican territory, leaves everyone in the cold. For the same reason, those who aspire to office must reinforce their own security without expecting help from anyone. These campaigns, it must not be forgotten, are terrifying.
