More than 170 attacks have been committed against politicians as the June elections approach, leaving experts warning that this may be the most violent election season in recent memory. So far during this 2024 election cycle, 30 candidates have been murdered, according to data reviewed by Mexican publication El País. Over the past 10 months, there have been more than 170 attacks, including 29 assaults, 11 kidnappings, and 77 death threats, the news outlet reported. There have been an additional 27 other murders of individuals who are not seeking office, such as relatives of public officials, political activists and community leaders. “The phenomenon of electoral violence has been growing in the country and is increasingly spreading,” Arturo Espinosa Silis, director of Laboratorio Electoral, which compiled the data on violence, told El País. “It’s not only a question of numbers, but also of territorial expansion: there are more red flags, more [areas] with a higher incidence of violence, more attacks,” he added. “I don’t think we have to wait for the number of fatalities to be exceeded. … this electoral process has been more violent when other aspects are looked at, such as assaults and threats.” Experts have explained that the stakes of this year’s election will be high, as Mexican voters won’t just be choosing a new president, but also all 500 members of congress, all 128 senators, along with several governorships, and seats in state legislatures. Criminal cartels have long used violence as a tool to influence policy and protect their enterprises. Politicians aren’t solely the targets. Cartels and criminal organizations use violence to instill fear among voters to lower turnout. “Violence will be highest where incumbent candidates are weaker and likely to be unseated, since shifts in political party power interrupt existing political-criminal agreements,” according to the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University’s Mexico Country Outlook report for 2024. “February and March tend to be very violent months, because that’s when [the parties decide] who they will put up as candidates,” Manuel Pérez Aguirre, a researcher from the College of Mexico who specializes in organized crime, told El País. In the state of Michoacán, 34 candidates have dropped out of the race after facing threats from criminal organizations who explicitly told them, “You don’t have permission.”With less than 40 days before voters head to the polls, Mexico is being rocked by political violence as a spate of targeted attacks has swept the country.
