Elections suspended in two violent communities in Mexico

Voting has been suspended in two municipalities in southern Mexico due to an increase in violence, authorities said on Saturday, just one day before the country elects a new president.

The decision comes at a time when at least 25 political candidates have been assassinated in a particularly bloody election year in a country plagued by drug cartel violence.

Around 27,000 soldiers and members of the National Guard will be deployed during Sunday’s elections to increase security. Outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised that Mexicans will be able to cast their votes “calmly, safely and without fear.”

However, the local electoral commission announced that polling stations could not be set up in Pantelho and Chicomuselo (both in the state of Chiapas) due to violence and the cities’ inability to maintain order.

On Friday, unknown assailants burned election documents in facilities in Chicomuselo, where a turf war between two drug cartels is currently taking place, the authority said. Election officials were also threatened.

In mid-May, eleven bodies were found in the city.

In Pantelho, officials were unable to train poll workers due to the constant presence of suspected members of armed gangs, electoral authorities said.

Chiapas attracts tourists with its lush jungle, indigenous communities and ancient Mayan ruins, but is also experiencing increasing turf wars between gangs fighting for control of drug and human smuggling routes.

– Historic change is imminent –

Sunday’s elections are likely to be a turning point for Mexico, as millions of citizens are expected to elect the country’s first woman president.

The ruling party’s candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, a former mayor of Mexico City and trained scientist, had a double-digit percentage point lead over her main opposition rival, Xochitl Galvez, in opinion polls a few days before the election.

In the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking country, which has a population of 129 million, nearly 100 million people are registered to vote.

The election campaign came to a bloody end on Wednesday when a gunman shot and killed a prospective mayor at a campaign rally in the southern state of Guerrero.

On Friday, a mayoral candidate was assassinated in the central state of Puebla.

The attacks brought the number of local politicians killed this election season to at least 25, including several in Chiapas, according to official figures.

More than 450,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands are missing since the government deployed the army to combat drug trafficking in 2006.

One of the biggest challenges for the next president will be combating the cartel violence that is causing murder and kidnapping in Mexico.

Sheinbaum has promised to continue López Obrador’s controversial “hugs not bullets” strategy to fight crime at its roots.

Galvez, who often talks about her childhood in a poor, rural town in central Mexico, has vowed a tougher approach, declaring: “The hugs for criminals are over.”

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