Mexico: 91 Politicians Murdered Leading up to General Elections

As another politician was killed in Mexico Tuesday, the country registers 91 politicians murdered during the electoral campaign leading to the national elections scheduled for July 1, 2018.

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The latest victim is Abel Montufar, mayor of the municipality of Coyuca de Catalan and candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for the local legislature of the state of Guerrero, next to Mexico City.

Local media reported he is the 10th politician in Guerrero to be killed during this year’s political campaign. The state faces high levels of drug-related violence.   

Montura was murdered Tuesday after being kidnapped in the municipality of Coyuca de Catalan, where he was later found in the back of his white pickup truck. The police report states his body showed clear signs of torture and bullet wounds in different parts of his body.

According to initial reports Montufar was in the campaign trail when he was intercepted by two armed individuals who shot and killed him. Local media reports days before the murder, Montufar had denounced receiving death threats and that the state police escort was withdrawn.

The leader of the PRI in Guerrero, Heriberto Huicochea lamented the murder and demanded “federal and state authorities to intervene in order to secure the murder does not go unpunished.”    

According to the Associated Press, last week the candidate for the municipality of Zihuatanejo, also in Guerrero, was murdered and a candidate in the state of Chihuahua was among several people shot and killed by a group of men.

An Etellekt report published in April revealed there had been over 200 attacks on Mexican politicians since September 2017. The attacks took place in 29 of the 32 federal states, mainly Puebla, Guerrero, Veracruz, Mexico State and Hidalgo.

The groups or people behind the murders are not targeting a specific party. Members of the PRI, the Democratic Revolutionary Party, as well as those of National Action Party have been targeted.