Mexico campaign season came to a bloody end when a gunman shot and killed an aspiring mayor at a rally on Wednesday, days before the country is expected to elect its first female president.
His killing brings to at least 23 the number of candidates who have been killed during what has been a particularly violent election process in the Latin American nation, according to an official count.
Alfredo Cabrera, candidate for mayor of an opposition coalition, was killed in the southern state of Guerrero, causing chaos and panic among those attending the demonstration.
Cabrera's killing was caught on camera, with footage showing him smiling and flanked by fans before he was shot multiple times.
The State Attorney's Office said that “the alleged assailant was killed at the scene.” Three people were also injured and two more arrested, according to witnesses.
FRANCISCO ROBLES/AFP via Getty Images
Cabrera belonged to the same opposition coalition as presidential candidate Xochitl Gálvez, who expressed outrage at his murder.
“He was a generous and good man,” he wrote on social media.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), part of the opposition coalition, accused the government of “not having made the slightest effort to guarantee the security of the candidates”.
Cabrera's death came just one day after he was a mayoral candidate in the central state of Morelos murderwhile another was wounded by gunfire in western Jalisco state.
Last week, nine people died in two attacks against mayoral candidates in the southern state of Chiapas. Both candidates survived.
Earlier this month, six people, including a minor candidate and the mayor's office Lucero López, died in an ambush after a campaign demonstration in the municipality of La Concordia, a neighbor of Villa Corzo.
He was a candidate for mayor shot dead last month right when he started campaigning.
About 27,000 soldiers and members of the National Guard will be deployed to strengthen security on election day.
The new leader will face a crisis of cartel violence
Tackling the cartel violence that has convulsed Mexico and made it one of the most dangerous countries in the world will be one of the biggest challenges facing the next leader, along with managing migration and delicate relations with the United States neighbours.
More than 450,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands have gone missing since the government deployed the military to fight drug trafficking in 2006.
Barring a major upset, a woman looks almost certain to be elected leader of the world's most populous Spanish-speaking country when millions of Mexicans vote on Sunday.
Favorite Claudia Sheinbaum, from the ruling Morena party, ended her campaign with a rally in the capital's public square.
“We're going to make history,” Sheinbaum told the cheering crowd.
“To the young women, to all the women of Mexico, colleagues, friends, sisters, daughters, mothers and grandmothers, I say you are not alone,” the 61-year-old said.
Dissemination Source Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo / Leaflet via REUTERS
Sheinbaum has pledged to continue the social programs and strategy of outgoing leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to fight crime at its roots, a controversial policy he calls “hugs not bullets.”
At his closing rally in the northern city of Monterrey, Galvez promised a tougher approach to cartel-related violence.
“You're going to have the bravest president, a president who stands up to crime,” he said.
Gálvez accused López Obrador of implementing “a security strategy where hugs have been for criminals and bullets for citizens.”
Woman ready to be the next president
Sheinbaum, a former mayor of Mexico City and a scientist by training, enjoys a sizable lead in the polls with 53 percent of voter support, according to research firm Oraculus.
Galvez, a center-right senator and businesswoman with indigenous roots, is in second place with 36 percent.
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The only man running, centrist Jorge Álvarez Maynez, has 11 percent.
Thousands of Sheinbaum's supporters gathered Wednesday to hear her speak, many dressed in purple, the color of the ruling party.
“People have woken up. We don't want the old governments to steal from us anymore because the poor come first,” said Soledad Hernandez, a 23-year-old housewife from the southern state of Oaxaca.
Sheinbaum owes much of his popularity to Lopez Obrador, widely known as AMLO, a close ally who has an approval rating of more than 60 percent but is only allowed to serve one term.
“The people in the countryside had nothing and now they are better off with AMLO,” said Maria Isabel Zacarias, 55, a street food vendor who came from the south to hear Sheinbaum speak.
Bertha Diaz, a 71-year-old Gálvez supporter, said she fears that if Sheinbaum wins, “it will happen more or less like with López Obrador, who has sunk Mexico and wants to turn it into another Venezuela.”
Nearly 100 million people are registered to vote for president, members of Congress, several state governors and local officials, in the largest election ever held in the country of 129 million.
The Minister of Security, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, said on Tuesday — before Cabrera's murder — that 22 people running for local office had been killed since September.
Some non-governmental organizations have reported an even higher toll, including Data Civica, which has counted at least 30 candidate murders.
