Mayoral candidate is assassinated in Mexico’s most dangerous state an hour after sharing location on Facebook Live and inviting voters to come and meet her
- Alma Barragán was shot dead Tuesday in Guanajuato, Mexico, while campaigning
- At least two other people were wounded after a group of men opened fired at an outdoors event in the Guanajuato city of Moroleón
- An hour before the shooting, Barragán recorded a live video of Facebook and invited voters to come out and listen to her proposals
- Her assassins then turned up to that location, and killed her
- The 61-year-old is the third nominee from the Citizen’s Movement party who has been murdered in the last 15 days
- Force for Mexico’s nominee for mayor of Acapulco, José Alonso, survived an assassination attempt and was not wounded while driving Wednesday
A Mexican mayoral candidate was assassinated an hour after posting a Facebook Live video sharing her location and inviting prospective voters to come and meet her.
Alma Barragán, 61, was shot dead on Tuesday while attending an outdoors event in in the Guanajuato municipality of Moroleón.
Guanajuato is Mexico’s most dangerous state, with Barragán the 88th political candidate killed since campaigning began in September 2020. Two others were wounded in the same attack.
The incident took place about an hour after Barragán, a newcomer to the political spectrum, recorded a live video on Facebook and invited prospective voters from the La Maguita, El Ombligo and Pico de Pájaro neighborhoods to come out and listen to her government plans.
‘Hello how are you? I’m here in La Manguita with Pedro Guzmán (Street). If you like to join me, come and hear my proposals. Come to spend a moment together,’ she said. ‘Together we do better. Thank you. I’ll wait for you here.’
Barragán was running under the Citizen’s Movement (Movimiento Ciudadano) party ticket and became the 88th political candidate murdered ahead of the June 6 mid-term elections.
The Citizen’s Movement prides itself on social democracy, protection of human rights and equality of gender.
‘Today Alma Barragán, our candidate, was murdered in a cowardly way. It should not be impossible to participate in political life without putting your life at risk,’ Citizen’s Movement coordinator Clemente Castañeda said Tuesday.
‘This is the most violent election in the history of Mexico and in Movimiento Ciudadano we are not willing to normalize it.’
According to Etellekt, political assassinations are up by more than a third from the last mid-term vote in 2015, when 61 were logged over nine months. The death toll comprises party members and those who sought, or who have held, public office
It is unclear if she leaves behind a partner or any children. DailyMail.com has contacted a party spokesman for further comment.
Alma Barragán, the Citizen’s Movement party’s nominee for mayor of Moroleón, a city in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, was executed by a group of armed men at a campaign event she was hosting. The 61-year-old woman is the 88th politician murdered ahead of the June 6 mid-term elections
Authorities stand near a vehicle where Alma Barragán, a 61-year-old mayoral hopeful, was shot dead Tuesday afternoon in Guanajuato, Mexico. She is the third candidate from the Citizen’s Movement party who was been killed
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday the killing was ‘without doubt’ the work of organized crime gangs.
‘It is very unfortunate what happened yesterday with this candidate who was murdered, our condolences to her relatives,’ López Obrador said. ‘It is a regrettable situation because it occurs in the middle of the electoral process, we are on the eve of the elections and these are people who want to generate instability.’
On Wednesday morning, the Force for Mexico’s nominee for mayor of the resort city of Acapulco, José Alonso, avoided being struck by gunfire as several individuals shot at him while he was driving with a bodyguard. His uncle, Joaquín Alonso, is currently doing a prison term for laundering money for the Beltrán-Leyva Organization.
Barragán is the third Citizen’s Movement candidate who has been murdered in the last 15 days.
Arturo Flores, who was running for a council seat in Landa de Matamoros, Quetaró, was found dead Sunday evening after he was reported missing last Thursday.
Authorities say the murdered was caused over a car sale debt and arrested Emmanuel Trejo, whose brother Jonathan Trejo is running against Flores’ widow Salsija Delgado, the Citizen’s Movement nominee for mayor of Landa de Matamoros.
Abel Murrieta, who was the party’s candidate for the mayoral seat in Cajeme, Sonora, was assassinated May 13 while handing out flyers in the middle of a street.
Murrieta had been working as a legal adviser to the families of the nine United States-Mexican dual citizens were ambushed and executed by alleged cartel assassins in November 2019.
On Wednesday morning, the Force for Mexico’s nominee for mayor of the resort city of Acapulco, José Alonso, avoided being struck by gunfire as several individuals shot at him while he was driving with a bodyguard
The vehicle of José Alonso, who is running for mayor of Acapulco, Mexico, came under fire Wednesday
It is unclear if Alma Barragán leaves behind a partner or any children.
On May 17, former mayor Juan Guzmán, who is running for a congressional seat in Guanajuato 20th district, survived an attack after his vehicle was attacked while on his way to a campaign event.
The following day, Socorro Ortega, who seeks the nomination for mayor of Moroleón under the dual Party of Democratic Revolution and Institutional Revolutionary Party ticket, decided to cancel her in-person campaign events for fear of being attacked.
It’s unknown if any of the attacks against the candidates in Guanajuato were launched by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and its main rival, the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel.
Bordered by Jalisco to the west, San Luis Potosí to the north, Michoacán to the south, Zacatecas to the northwest and Queretaró to the east, the state of Guanajuato topped all of the nation’s 31 states and Mexico City, the capital, with 4,750 murders in 2020, including 3,750 which involved the use of firearms.
The central state Guanajuato ranks as Mexico’s most deadliest state with 1,263 homicides reported in the first four months of 2021.
Source: Read Full Article
