Mexico’s drug cartels and gangs appear to be playing a broader role in Sunday’s election than before | Wilnesh News

Mexico’s drug cartels and gangs appear to have a broader role than before Sunday’s election This will determine the presidency, nine provincial governorships and approximately 19,000 mayoral and other local positions.

The country’s powerful drug cartels Long-term targeted assassinations Mayoral and other local candidates who threaten their control. Mexico’s gangs rely on controlling local police chiefs and sharing municipal budgets; they appear less interested in national politics.

But in the run-up to Sunday’s vote, criminal groups have increasingly opened fire on entire campaign rallies, burned ballots or prevented polling stations from being set up, and even put up banners in an attempt to sway voters.

Security analyst David Saucedo said some drug cartels may try to force voters to vote for their preferred candidate.

“There is reason to think that the cartels will mobilize their support base during Sunday’s elections,” Saucedo said. “They have won loyal voters by distributing food packages, cash, medicine and infrastructure projects. They will exploit these voters. Come support drug candidates.”

In some places, the gangs appear to be encouraging people to vote while preventing them from voting in areas controlled by rivals.

Election authorities reported on Friday that attackers burned down a house where ballots were stored in the violence-torn town of Chico Musello in the southern state of Chiapas ahead of Sunday. While they did not reveal who was behind the attack, the town is completely controlled by two warring drug cartels from the states of Jalisco and Sinaloa.

On May 14, gunmen apparently linked to the cartel shot and killed 11 people in one day in Chicomuselo. On May 17, a mayoral candidate and five other people were killed. Gunman opens fire on crowd in La Concordia townChiapas, approximately 45 miles (75 km) east of Chico Musello.

Targeted assassinations of local candidates continue. Dramatic video images showed on Wednesday that a mayoral candidate in the southern state of Guerrero was shot in the head with a pistol at close range in a fit of rage. A total of 31 candidates have been killed this year, almost all running for mayor.

But large-scale attacks on campaign rallies, once extremely rare in Mexico, have become increasingly common, killing more supporters than candidates this year. The effect is daunting.

Unidentified gunmen opened fire just blocks away from a mayoral candidate’s final campaign rally in the western state of Michoacán on Wednesday, the final day of the campaign, sending hundreds of people scrambling for safety.

“It seemed like a normal night, like the end of the campaign for other candidates,” said Angélica Chávez, a housewife who attended the rally in Cotija. “Then there were gunshots, several very close rounds. And then people started running and squatting on the ground.”

Chavez was injured in the stampede and had to seek refuge in a local church.

In April, armed men opened fire at a campaign event in Zelaya, Guanajuato state, killing a mayoral candidate and wounding three of her supporters.

Analyst Saucedo believes the shooting shows the drug cartels are no longer willing to see their handpicked candidates fail.

“Instead of letting a candidate win who doesn’t serve their criminal interests or who has ties to rival drug gangs, they’re going to use this tactic,” Saucedo said. “What we’re seeing in the final stages is Very desperate tactics adopted by some drug gangs.”

Such attempts at drug control of local politics have occurred before in particularly violent states, such as Tamaulipas, Saucedo said. “What was once limited… is now being extended to the entire country,” he said.

The National Electoral Institute said it had to cancel plans for 170 polling stations, mostly in the states of Chiapas and Michoacán, because of security concerns. In Chiapas, electoral authorities said there were places they couldn’t even go. While that’s only a small fraction of the country’s 170,858 polling places, it’s disturbing.

In the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo, local media reported that a shadowy group with ties to a major northeastern drug cartel put up posters claiming a mayoral candidate had ties to the rival Gulf drug cartel.

Authorities have not confirmed the origin of the crude poster, which includes a photo of the candidate brandishing an assault rifle and wearing a bulletproof vest emblazoned with the Gulf Cartel’s insignia.

In the state of Morelos, south of Mexico City, residents woke up this week to find a banner hanging on the road claiming a gubernatorial candidate had ties to a rival drug gang. The banner was signed by an unknown local drug lord named “Three-Character Commander.”

Another clearly gang-related banner threatened “severe punishment” for anyone trying to buy votes. The banner was signed “Those who have been here giving orders.”

Such incidents appear to suggest that the cartel’s past calculation – remove the strongest candidate you don’t like and the remaining major party candidate will win by default – has become more complicated.

In the town of Maravatio in Michoacán, gangs are apparently trying to remove any doubts about who will win this year; they Killed three candidates for mayor Apparently they don’t like these people.