US police brutality deaths hit record high in 2023, report says

While the main presidential candidates, Claudia Sheinbaum and

The murder was recorded on a video recorded by his followers. It shows that Cabrera, smiling and surrounded by supporters, is shot several times, which caused panic among those attending the event. The scene was reminiscent of the assassination, in 1994, of the then presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio, which shook the country.

The politician aspired to be mayor of Coyuca de Benítez, a town in the state of Guerrero. Members of the militarized National Guard can be seen at the crime scene, although at the moment it is not clear if they were monitoring the event.

According to the state prosecutor’s office, “the alleged aggressor was killed at the scene.” Three other people were reportedly injured and two more were detained, witnesses reported.

With this homicide, according to a count by the federal government, at least 24 candidates have been murdered since the electoral process began in September 2023. However, the organization Data Cívica reports around thirty murders.

Gálvez, candidate of the same coalition of parties as Cabrera (PRI, PAN and PRD), expressed “outrage” at his murder in a message on the social network X, in which she said that she knew him personally. “He was a generous and good man,” she wrote.

The PRI, where the politician was active, regretted that the campaign “ended violently” and blamed the Guerrero government – in power of the left-wing ruling party – for not having made “not even the slightest effort” to protect the candidates.

“Make history”

Meanwhile, the leftist Sheinbaum, a large favorite to become the first female president of Mexico, closed her campaign before thousands of followers in the capital’s Zócalo, the country’s main public square.

“This June 2, once again, we are going to make history,” said the former mayor of Mexico City, a 61-year-old scientist of Jewish origin, in her speech.

According to an average of surveys by the Oraculus firm, she leads the center-right Gálvez by 17 points to be the successor of the popular president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The dispute is completed by former centrist deputy Jorge Álvarez Máynez, third in the polls.

Sheinbaum reiterated that he will continue the social programs to which the president owes much of his 66% popularity, as well as his controversial strategy of attacking drug trafficking violence from the roots, in his view poverty and marginalization.

«I am very excited (…). For the first time we will have a female president! », Said Evelyn Trasviña, a 42-year-old public accountant, while she applauded the candidate.

Dressed in an indigenous costume, María Isabel Zacarías, 55, arrived at the event from Oaxaca (south) because she believes that Sheinbaum will maintain aid from AMLO, the acronym for the current president.

Against “authoritarianism”

For her part, in a coliseum in the prosperous industrial city of Monterrey (northeast), Gálvez, a senator and businesswoman of indigenous roots, closed her campaign before a crowd.

“We are going to bring life where death walks today, we are going to bring truth where lies reign today and we are going to bring freedom where today an authoritarian government wants to impose its decisions,” he expressed.

The congresswoman plans to travel later to Tepatepec, her hometown in the central state of Hidalgo, for a “meeting with citizens.”

«Xóchitl has the best proposals, a very different vision of the future for young people. “Not just what Mexico needs now, but in the future,” Cindy Cavazos, a 25-year-old official employee, told AFP.

Álvarez Máynez, from the Citizen Movement party, meanwhile, concluded his activities with a rally in a central auditorium in the Mexican capital.

Thousands of charges in dispute

Some 100 million Mexicans – out of a population of 129 million – are eligible to vote in this single-round presidential election that is won by a simple majority. In Mexico there is no reelection.

Just over 20,000 positions, including Congress and nine of 32 governorships, are in dispute.

The ruling Morena party seeks to expand the simple majority it has in both legislative chambers, as well as defend its bastion, Mexico City, with Clara Brugada contesting the mayoralty against the right-wing Santiago Taboada. More than 27,000 soldiers and national guards will be deployed to guarantee the security of the elections.

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