130 Mexican Political Candidates Assassinated in 10 Months

Political assassinations, murders, and violence continue to escalate as Mexico’s elections approach. In the 10 months since the election cycle started, nearly 130 political candidates were murdered.

The most recent took place this week in Buena Vista Michoacan when a team of cartel gunmen shot and killed Javier Ureña Gonzalez, the acting mayor for the municipality as he visited a small village. Ureña assumed the role of acting mayor while his boss Lorenzo Barajas took leave to run for re-election.

Ureña’s murder comes one day after a Oaxaca state congressional candidate was gunned down along with four of his associates. A team of gunmen killed Emigdio Lopez Avendaño as he was visiting the town of San Vicente Coatlan in the southern part of the state.

Earlier this week, a local campaign worker in the border city of Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas, died when he drove up to the scene of a cartel gun-battle. Leonardo “El Chino” Diaz and another campaign worker were driving along the highway when they were caught in crossfire. The van that Diaz was riding in caught fire, charring his remains. In response, local candidates canceled their campaign events.

The murder in Miguel Aleman follows a drive-by shooting at the governor’s mansion in Ciudad Victoria Tamaulipas. During the attack, the gunmen fired several shots out of an SUV, injuring a police officer that was guarding the building.

Mexico is experiencing one of the bloodiest electoral cycles in history with more than 120 candidates murdered since September 2017. The most recent accounting for assassinated political candidates as of June 25 is 130, according to Etellekt.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “A.C. Del Angel” from Tamaulipas, “Tony Aranda” from Nuevo León, and Jose Luis Lara, a former leading member who helped start the Self-Defense Movement in Michoacán.