Summary
The international press has been celebrating the election of the first woman president in Mexico recently, but the positive news is hiding a much more serious situation in Mexico.
In essence, cartel violence all over Mexico and the government’s desire to minimize related news points to a much more dangerous situation.
TL;DR
- Claudia Sheinbaum was recently elected to the Presidency of Mexico, the first time a woman has been elected to that office in Mexico.
- Immediately after her election as President, Yolanda Sanchez Figueroa, a mayor in Cotija in western Mexico, was gunned down by cartel hitmen, who shot her 19 times and also killed her bodyguard. Another mayoral candidate, Alfredo Cabrera, was also gunned down in the southern state of Gurrero.
- These are just 2 of 23 candidates who were assassinated during just this election cycle alone, assassinations carried about by cartels in an attempt to intimidate and influence elections.
More details
- The First woman elected to the Mexican Presidency, Claudia Sheinbaum, is essentially a protege of Andres Obrador, the previous President of Mexico, who was a very popular president in his own right.
- Sheinbaum has said that she will continue the policies of her predecessor – which is concerning because Obrador’s policy toward the cartels was widely viewed as ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ in nature, meaning that he didn’t press too hard against the cartels and seemed to adopt a ‘live and let live approach’ rather than a more hard-line approach.
- However, in the leadup to the elections, over 33 candidates were murdered as part of assassinations of candidates and their staff members, in an effort to intimidate and control the Mexican elections.
- It’s estimated that as much as 30% of Mexican territory, and a corresponding percentage of the Mexican government, military and judicial forces are similarly controlled by the cartels.
- As Mexico plays down the overwhelming bloodshed and strife currently playing out across the country, the real possibility of Mexico becoming a failed state on the order of Haiti is becoming a more distinct possibility every day.
- The US-Mexican border is the most heavily-traveled border in the world today, running some 1,954 miles in length.
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