Mayoral candidate killed after sharing campaign trail location in Facebook Live video

May 27, 2021

A mayoral candidate in north-central Mexico has been killed – on the same day she posted a Facebook Live video sharing her exact whereabouts on the campaign trail and inviting voters to come and speak to her.

Alma Barragan was killed while campaigning to be mayor of the city of Moroleon in violence-plagued Guanajuato state.

In a video she posted on social media on Tuesday morning, she cited the street she was in and said: “Here I’m waiting for you to talk about my proposals.”

Her death brings the number of candidates murdered nationwide ahead of the 6 June elections to 34.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the killing was “without doubt” the work of organised crime gangs to scare voters away from the polls.

“When there is a lot of abstentionism, the mafias dominate the elections,” he said.

Experts say drug gangs want to place sympathetic candidates in high-profile posts in town halls and local governments, so they can extort money from their budgets and operate without interference from the police.

Ms Barragan was running on the ticket of the small Citizen’s Movement party, which said in a statement: “It is unthinkable that participating in political life means putting one’s life at risk.

“This is the most violent election in Mexican history, and in Citizen’s Movement we are not willing to act as if that is normal.”

Moroleon is situated near the border with Michoacan state, also hit by drug cartel violence.

Read Entire Article