(Celaya) A candidate for mayor of a city in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato was shot and killed Monday, part of a wave of violence against candidates for office local authorities in the run-up to the general elections on June 2, announced the local prosecutor’s office.
The victim, Gisela Gaytan, died of “gunshot wounds”, according to the prosecutor’s office, which added that the attack, which occurred in the town of San Miguel Octopan, in Celaya, also left three injured.
Local authorities later announced that a candidate for a city council seat, Adrian Guerrero, also died in the attack from his injuries. But hours later, they clarified in a statement that there were no reports of his death. The State Security Secretariat did not specify in the document whether he was with Mme Gaytan during the attack.
“It’s a sad day […]. These events are very regrettable, there are people who are fighting to uphold democracy,” Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador reacted on Tuesday during his daily press conference.
“They have just assassinated our candidate […] It’s something that makes us angry, that shocks us, that leaves us in mourning. We are going to suspend our campaign activities,” said Alma Alcaraz, candidate for governor of the state of Guanajuato during a meeting with supporters of her Morena party.
Gisela Gaytan was running for mayor of Celaya for the same party, that of President Lopez Obrador. According to local media, she was 38 years old. She was killed as she was preparing to participate in a political rally.
The governor of Guanajuato, Diego Sinhue, of the conservative PAN party, assured on X that the murder of Gisela Gaytan “will not go unpunished”.
The state of Guanajuato is considered the most violent in Mexico, with more than 3,000 homicides in 2023.
This crime occurs in the middle of the electoral campaign for the presidential elections of June 2, during which 20,000 local and national elected positions will be renewed, as well as the entire bicameral Congress.
This is in addition to several other assassinations of candidates for local office or elected officials that occurred in March.
During the night from Saturday to Sunday, it was the mayor of a town in the state of Michoacan, in western Mexico, a region shaken by violence linked to drug trafficking, Guillermo Torres, who was killed by a commando.
Before him, still in March, two candidates for mayor of cities in the states of Puebla and Guerrero were killed.
From June 4, 2023 to March 26, 2024, 50 people were killed in “episodes of electoral violence” and 26 of them were running for office, according to a report by the think tank Laboratorio Electoral.
Mexico, which has a population of 126 million, has recorded more than 450,000 murders since 2006, the start of a vast anti-drug offensive launched by then-president Felipe Calderon. Most of these crimes are attributed to criminal organizations.