She had barely run for mayor before her campaign was smothered in a pool of blood. Bertha Gaytán was shot dead on the street on Monday just outside the city of Celaya, in the state of Guanajuato, which is known as extremely dangerous.
Gaytán had just started her campaign as a mayoral candidate. A video posted to social media shows a small procession of people chanting “Morena!” shout – the name of Gaytán’s party. At the same time, several shots are heard and people fall down or run away.
Gaytán’s murder marks the increasingly bloody run-up to the Mexican elections on June 2. At least fourteen politicians have been murdered in the country since the beginning of this year.
Morena is the party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who will leave office in September. The June 2 elections will not only elect his successor, but also refill many state and municipal posts.
Violence against politicians is widespread in Mexico. Last weekend, the mayor of Churumuco, a city in the neighboring state of Michoacan, was shot dead in a taco restaurant in the capital Morelia.
Extremely violent
The state of Guanajuato is also known for being extremely violent, with the city of Celaya being the most dangerous place to be a police officer. In the city of 500,000 inhabitants, at least 34 police officers have been murdered in the past three years.
In the entire state of Guanajuato, with just over 6 million inhabitants, more police officers were shot dead in 2023 than in the entire United States combined, about 60. The state has been plagued for years by violent battles between the Jalisco drug cartel and the Santa Rosa the Lima gang.
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Tags: Mexican mayoral candidate shot dead #14th murder politician year
