MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two candidates for mayor in the Mexican city of Maravatio have been gunned down within hours of each other, leading to concerns that someone wants to influence the June 2 election.
Experts have predicted that the widening control of drug cartels in Mexico could make the election especially violent. Campaigning formally begins Friday.
State prosecutors said Tuesday that Armando Pérez was found shot to death in his car in Maravatio just before midnight. He was the mayoral candidate for the conservative National Action Party.
Hours earlier, officials with the ruling Morena party confirmed their candidate, Miguel Ángel Zavala, was found shot to death Monday in his car.
The Morena party state committee said in a statement that the killing of Zavala was “a cowardly and reprehensible act.”
The western state of Michoacan has been particularly hard hit by gang turf wars, with the Jalisco New Generation cartel fighting a local gang, the Viagras, for control.
In a report published earlier this month, Integralia Consultants wrote that “organized crime will intervene like never before in local elections in 2024” because more mayor’s offices are at stake, more cartels are engaged in turf wars and cartels have expanded their business model far beyond drugs.
Cartels make much of their money extorting protection payments from local businesses and even local governments. That’s why mayoral races are more important to them than national elections and often become violent.
The watchdog group Civic Data said in a January report on political violence that “2023 was the most violent year in our database. And everything suggests that 2024 will be worse.”
It said five people intending to run for office were killed in Mexico in January.
Michoacan had the fifth-highest number of attacks on politicians and government officials, behind Guerrero state to the south and Guanajuato state to the north. Zacatecas and Veracruz also had a higher number of attacks.
