Photo: Deposit Photos

By KELIN DILLON

Just days before the formal kickoff of Mexico’s 2024 presidential electoral season, violent crimes against politicians and political activists have continued surging across the country.

As a result, electoral watchdog organizations and consulting firms have warned that Mexico’s upcoming electoral season is primed to be one of the most violent on record – especially as local organized crime groups aim to keep control of their territories by targeting mayoral candidates.

A total of 14 individuals involved in the electoral process have been murdered so far in 2024, marking an average of one person killed every four days.

The killings have been spread across Mexico’s various political parties, with four murdered from the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), two from the Citizen’s Movement (MC), two from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), two from the National Action Party (PAN), one from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and one from the Green Party (PVEM).

Two candidates running for the mayorship of Maravatío, Michoacán – Morena candidate Miguel Ángel Reyes and PAN candidate Armando Pérez Luna – were murdered on Monday, Feb. 26 alone. Morena’s party leader in the town, Dagoberto García, was previously killed in Maravatío back in November.

Likewise, academic electoral think tank Laboratorio Electoral registered another 20 murders against pollsters, electoral officials and family members of candidates tied to the electoral process in 2024.

Electoral candidates who wish to be protected by the federal government’s so-called “candidate protection mechanism” must first have their request analyzed and approved by the National Guard (GN), leaving many aspiring politicians’ safety in jeopardy as their petition remains in time-consuming bureaucratic limbo.