Candidates face violence in Mexico elections скачать в хорошем качестве

Candidates face violence in Mexico elections

(28 May 2021) Bodyguards are part of the routine preparation for a campaign stop for Guillermo Valencia, who is running for mayor in Morelia, capital of the troubled Mexican state of Michoacan. The security detail ride in cars ahead and behind him and accompany him everywhere he goes. 34 people have been killed as aspiring mayors, governors and legislators in Mexico's June 6 midterm elections. "It changes your life, you have to ride in an armored car when you're not used to it," Valencia said. "You have to be careful because you don't know what's going to happen." Only a driver accompanies Valencia in his own armored SUV. Other campaign aides have been scared to ride with him since a May 8 attack that wounded a bodyguard and his private secretary and left his previous campaign vehicle riddled with bullets. The May 8 attack came on the night that Mexican boxer Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez defeated Billy Joe Saunders, thrilling Mexican crowds. Valencia decided to stop and see the bout at a friend's home, leaving his secretary and bodyguard in an SUV parked on the street. Moments later, a car pulled up and two young gunmen wearing jeans and sneakers leaped out. One poured bullets into the SUV with a rifle. Another with a pistol went around to finish off anybody trying to flee the vehicle. Miraculously, both members of Valencia's team survived, though they were wounded. Officials have made no arrests. Experts say drug cartels in Mexico often attack innocent candidates to force them out of races and leave the way clear for cartel favorites. Francisco Rivas, director of the nongovernmental National Civic Observatory, said criminals use violence as "a control mechanism." These days, before heading to a rally, Valencia stops by a relative's house to strap on a bulletproof vest. Valencia, 40, is a hefty 6'4 (1.93 cm) former legislator who is running for mayor on the ticket of the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party. The leader of a crime victims' advocacy group, he also once served as mayor of his hometown of Tepalcatepec, near the border with Jalisco state. Tepalcatepec is so completely dominated by drug gangs that when soldiers and marines swooped in 2018 to arrest a local leader, residents surrounded the military personnel, demanding his release. The gang leader was eventually let go. Valencia was stripped of office in Tepalcatepec by the state legislature in 2014 after seeming to disappear for months but he denied any connection to the local gang. It's possible that the powerful Jalisco cartel is convinced that Valencia, as a Tepalcatepec native, is in the pocket of their rivals. Or the cartel may just want him out of the way. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has started a program to protect candidates, acknowledging that the violence is alarming. The government has assigned armed bodyguards to some candidates, like Valencia. But even with government protection, Valencia fears the cartel gunmen will try to finish the job they botched on May 8. On Tuesday,  Alma Barragán was killed while campaigning for mayor of Moroleón in violence-plagued Guanajuato state. It's hard for Valencia to say goodbye to his family every time he leaves. "I would like to leave without saying goodbye," Valencia said. "I don't know if I'm coming back." Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...