Mexico held an election on June 2nd. It was a massive election, with 20,000 official posts up for grabs, from the presidency and Congress down to local offices. There were 70,000 candidates competing for those 20,000 posts.
In some parts of Mexico, violence accompanied the election, mostly targeting those competing for local offices.
During the campaign season leading up to Election Day, there were 38 candidates assassinated. That surpasses the record of the 2021 midterm elections of 36 assassinated.
According to the InsightCrime website, in this election season, from September 2023 to June 2nd, 2024, “…[E]lection observers recorded 129 political violence events targeting officials…The scale of violence, which included 102 political assassinations, as well as kidnappings, forced disappearances, attempted murders, and attacks on family members, campaign staff, and official infrastructure like ballot boxes, made this election season particularly concerning, Tiziano Breda, ACLED’s Associate Analysis Coordinator for Latin America, told InSight Crime.”
According to Tiziano Breda, “The violence was due to two main reasons: the magnitude of the election, with it being the biggest in the country’s recent history, and it’s also the consequence of how Mexico’s criminal landscape has evolved into a growing number of fractured groups with diverse economic portfolios competing for influence, and therefore exacerbating violence.”
Half of the election violence occurred in just five Mexican states:
Michoacan, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Veracruz. See the five states on the map below:
Click here for another map entitled Officials Killed in Mexico by State | Flourish, which goes from September of 2023 to the Election Day.