A mayoral candidate in Mexico was assassinated at a campaign rally on Wednesday, bringing the number of politicians killed this election season to more than 30 with several days until the country’s election on Sunday.
Alfredo Cabrera was fatally shot multiple times while greeting attendees at a rally in the southern Mexico state of Guerrero on Wednesday. The shooter put a gun to the back of Cabrera’s head and pulled the trigger, all while being caught on camera. The gunman was immediately killed by authorities on site, according to the state prosecutor’s office.
Cabrera was a member of the conservative opposition party, the Partido Accion Nacional. Xochitl Galvez, a leading candidate for president, said the fellow PAN member was a “generous and good man.”
“There are no words to express the indignation I feel over the murder of Alfredo Cabrera, candidate for municipal president of Coyuca, Guerrero,” Galvez wrote in a post on X. “I met him personally during the brigade after Hurricane Otis and I know that he was a generous and good man. My deepest condolences to his family, his friends and the entire town of Coyuca de Benitez. Rest in peace.”
Wednesday marked the final day for candidates in local, state, or federal elections to campaign ahead of the election on Sunday.
On Tuesday, Cuautla mayoral candidate Ricardo Arizmendi was assassinated in the state of Morelos.
“The members of the State Coordination Table for the Construction of Peace condemn the attack where unfortunately Ricardo Arizmendi Reynoso, who was a substitute candidate for the municipal mayor of Cuautla, lost his life,” the state said in a statement published on Facebook.
Think tank Laboratorio Electoral had tracked 34 assassinations of politicians this election cycle as of Wednesday.
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The Institutional Revolutionary Party has blamed the government for not doing more to protect candidates of opposition parties, stating that it had “not made even the slightest effort to guarantee the safety of the candidates.”
Mexico is slated to elect its first woman president on Sunday, as both front-runners are women. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is term-limited to one six-year term and unable to seek reelection.