The June 6 contests will elect a new lower house of congress and "15 of 32 state governors, and thousands of mayors and local legislators across the country, more than 20,000 positions in all," according to the Wall Street Journal.
More than 150 politicians have asked the government for protection following death threats.
The reason for the uptick in political murders is that local gangs are looking to control smaller cities and towns by intimidating politicians.
Once in control of local governments, the gangs also take a cut of tax money meant for public works, according to organizations that track and analyze crime trends.
It's really a question of local business practices by smaller gangs that realize that the government of President Lopez Obrador isn't aggressively going after the cartels, which have diversified into numerous other criminal activities besides drugs and human trafficking.
"You have more and smaller groups that diversified into other crimes and want to have control of the local markets," said Falko Ernst, a security analyst with the nonprofit International Crisis Group.
There is real danger that as things get worse - and they almost certainly will - more and more Mexican people will vote with their feet and head north to find respite from the violence.
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
46 Local Politicians in Mexico Have Been Gunned Down
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