Current:Home > MyMayoral candidate shot dead in street just as she began campaigning in Mexico -Streamline Finance
Mayoral candidate shot dead in street just as she began campaigning in Mexico
View
Date:2025-04-11 17:01:43
A candidate for mayor of a violence-wracked city in Mexico has been killed just as she began campaigning, marking yet another politician to be shot dead in the country in recent weeks.
Authorities in the north-central state of Guanajuato said candidate Bertha Gisela Gaytán Gutiérrez was shot to death on a street in a town just outside the city of Celaya. Mayorships in Mexico often included smaller surrounding communities.
Video of the scene posted on social media showed a small procession of people shouting "Morena!" - the name of Gaytán's party. At that moment, several shots can be heard and people are seen running and falling down.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the killing of his own party's candidates "hurts a lot," but he did not announce any increase in security for politicians.
"They have just murdered our candidate from Celaya... This is something that has us angry, shocked, in mourning. We are going to suspend campaign activities," said Alma Alcaraz, another candidate with the ruling Morena party.
Gaytan, 38, was killed while preparing for an electoral rally, and had said earlier on Monday at a press conference that she had asked for protection for her campaign.
The governor of the state of Guanajuato, where the killing took place, Diego Sinhue, wrote on X that the attack would "not go unpunished."
Just hours before she died, Gaytán posted a message on Facebook, showing her meeting with local residents.
"Together, with determination and commitment, we will achieve the change we so long for," she wrote. "We want a Celaya where every person has the opportunity to thrive, we want transformation."
It was the latest killing in the increasingly bloody runup to Mexico's June 2 elections. At least 14 candidates have been killed since the start of 2024.
Morena is the party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who leaves office in September. The June 2 elections will decide his successor, as well as many state and municipal posts.
Guanajuato has for some time had the highest number of homicides of any state in Mexico, and Celaya is arguably the most dangerous place, per capita, to be a police officer in North America. At least 34 police officers have been killed in this city of 500,000 people in the last three years.
In Guanajuato state, with its population just over 6 million, more police were shot to death in 2023 - about 60 - than in all of the United States.
In December, 11 people were killed and another dozen were wounded in an attack on a pre-Christmas party in Guanajuato. Just days before that, the bodies of five university students were found stuffed in a vehicle on a dirt road in Celaya.
For years, the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel has fought a bloody turf war with the Jalisco cartel for control of Guanajuato.
Violence against politicians is widespread in Mexico. Over the weekend, the mayor of Churumuco, a town in the neighboring state of Michoacan, was shot to death at a taco restaurant in the state capital, Morelia. Guillermo Torres, 39, and his 14-year-old son were both attacked at the restaurant. His son survived.
Two mayoral candidates were murdered in another town in Michoacan on February 26: Miguel Angel Zavala Reyes and Armando Perez Luna of the Morena and National Action Party, respectively.
Last month, prosecutors in southern Mexico said that mayoral candidate Tomás Morales was killed in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero. Also in March, Alfredo González, a mayoral contender in the town of Atoyac, Guerrero, was shot to death.
AFP contrubuted to this report.
- In:
- Mexico
- Murder
- Cartel
veryGood! (31784)
Related
- North Carolina trustees approve Bill Belichick’s deal ahead of introductory news conference
- Columbia cancels in-person classes and Yale protesters are arrested as Mideast war tensions grow
- Express files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, announces store closures, possible sale
- What time does the NFL draft start? Date, start time, order and more to know for 2024
- Charges: D'Vontaye Mitchell died after being held down for about 9 minutes
- Track and field's decision to award prize money to Olympic gold medalists criticized
- CIA Director William Burns says that without aid, Ukraine could lose on the battlefield by the end of 2024
- After a 7-year-old Alabama girl lost her mother, she started a lemonade stand to raise money for her headstone
- Shilo Sanders' bankruptcy case reaches 'impasse' over NIL information for CU star
- Parents arrested after 1-month-old twins were found dead at Houston home in October 2023
Ranking
- Kylie Jenner Shows Off Sweet Notes From Nieces Dream Kardashian & Chicago West
- 'American Idol' recap: Two contestants are eliminated during the Top 12 reveal
- 5 Maryland high school students shot at park during senior skip day event: Police
- Schools keep censoring valedictorians. It often backfires — here's why they do it anyway.
- Elon Musk’s Daughter Vivian Calls Him “Absolutely Pathetic” and a “Serial Adulterer”
- Bringing back the woolly mammoth to roam Earth again. Is it even possible? | The Excerpt
- Nelly Korda wins 2024 Chevron Championship, record-tying fifth LPGA title in a row
- North Carolina medical marijuana sales begin at Cherokee store
Recommendation
$73.5M beach replenishment project starts in January at Jersey Shore
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass safe after suspect breaks into official residence, police say
Tesla cuts the price of its “Full Self Driving” system by a third to $8,000
In a shocker, David Taylor fails to make Olympic wrestling team. Aaron Brooks earns spot
Intel's stock did something it hasn't done since 2022
Nuggets shake off slow start to Game 1, beat Lakers for ninth straight time
Children of Flint water crisis make change as young environmental and health activists
Roman Gabriel, NFL MVP and College Football Hall of Fame quarterback, dies at 83