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News > Latin America

Lawyer for Mexico Leftist Party Morena Murdered as Part of Political 'Terror Strategy'

  • Supporters of Morena's Delfina Gomez shout during the closing campaign rally in Chicoloapan de Juárez, State of Mexico.

    Supporters of Morena's Delfina Gomez shout during the closing campaign rally in Chicoloapan de Juárez, State of Mexico. | Photo: Reuters

Published 7 June 2017
Opinion

The violent act comes as the leftist party seeks a recount in the recent vote for governor in the state of Mexico.

In the wake of key elections in the state of Mexico and three other Mexican states, a lawyer representing the left-wing Morena party allegedly has been murdered by police, the party reported, bringing the death toll of people from the party to 17.

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Eduardo Catarino Dircio was shot and killed in Tixtla, in the violence-ridden state of Guerrero, according to a Morena statement released Monday. Catarino was a lawyer for Morena, the up-and-coming progressive party headed by one of Mexico's most well-known politicians, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The party stated that Catarino had taken shelter inside his home with his family after a shooting took place on the street when state police forces entered his home and executed him in front of his wife and children, placing an AK-47 rifle next to him.

"These acts of violence are part of the terror strategy of local and federal governments to intimidate Morena's progress in the different states ahead of the federal election of 2018. We will not be intimidated and persist in our peaceful struggle," the party stated.

News of Catarino's murder came just one day after elections were held in the states of Mexico, Coahuila, Nayarit and Veracruz. The ballot in the state of Mexico, in particular, has been seen as a political weathervane for the 2018 presidential race, which could see Morena's Lopez Obrador unseat President Enrique Peña Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, which has governed the country nearly uninterrupted for decades.

Lopez Obrador, known in Mexico by his initials AMLO, has called for a "vote by vote" review in the tight race for the governorship of the state of Mexico, after unofficial results from Sunday's ballot showed a 3 percent lead for the ruling PRI party's Alfredo del Mazo over Morena's Delfina Gomez.

"Morena believes that Delfina Gomez won the election on Sunday and that she is the governor of the state of Mexico," said Lopez Obrador, who also called on Peña Nieto not to intervene in the electoral process.

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The party also claims that as it has gained ground and political face offs in key states heated up, its members have faced threats and violence.

"In the last weeks and the same day of the election our supporters were physically assaulted by PRI allies, especially in the state of Mexico and in Veracruz," Morena said in Monday's statement. "This weekend there were also attacks against our candidates for municipalities."

The party has also reported kidnappings and beatings of 10 other members and police repression and harassment in homes, offices and hotels their supporters were staying during the election.

According to Morena, Catarino's murder brings the total of people from the party killed to 17. The party also raised alarm about soaring rates of violence in Guerrero, which also recently claimed the life of Marcela de Jesus Natalia, an Indigenous radio journalist who was assassinated as she left her workplace.

Lopez Obrador launched his campaign in November for the 2018 elections in his third run for president with a platform focused on tackling inequality and corruption.

The well-known politician already ran for president with the Party of the Democratic Revolution, also known as the PRD, in 2006 against Felipe Calderon and again in 2012 against Peña Nieto, both of the PRI. Both elections were mired in controversy and hotly contested.

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