Mayoral candidate Alma Barragán murdered in central Mexico

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to Etellekt consulting firm, Mexico’s electoral campaign is marked by intense violence, with over 80 politicians murdered, 34 of whom were candidates or aspirants.

Alma Rosa Barragán Santiago, a mayoral candidate for the Mexican municipality of Moroleón for the Citizen Movement (Movimiento Ciudadano) party, was murdered while leading an event in the state of Guanajuato, central Mexico

“We strongly condemn the attack in which Alma Barragán, candidate for the Citizen Movement for mayor of Moroleón, lost her life,” Guanajuato’s Secretary of Government, Libia Dennise García Muñoz Ledo, wrote on Twitter minutes after the murder.

The attack occurred in Moroleon at around 6 PM local time, the same city where eight days ago the candidate for local deputy for the alliance formed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) and the Democratic Revolution Party PRD (Partido de la Revolución Democrática), Juan Guzmán Ramírez, was gunned down, but survived.

Barragán was at a campaign event in the outskirts of the municipality, just 4 kilometers from where the attack against Guzmán Ramírez took place, when she was shot. The candidate died at the scene and two other people were injured and rushed to the hospital.

“We strongly urge the authorities to investigate and seek justice for this brutal attack,” tweeted the Citizen Movement’s national coordinator, Clemente Castañeda. In a statement, the party called on the authorities for “prompt justice, a thorough investigation and punishment of those responsible for this outrageous event.”

Abel Murrieta Gutiérrez, ex-attorney general of the state of Sonora and mayoral candidate for the city of Cajeme, belonged to the same party and was murdered on May 13 during a campaign event. Barragán is the third candidate to be murdered in this electoral process in Guanajuato, a state that since 2018 concentrates the highest number of homicides committed in Mexico.

According to the Guanajuato Government Secretariat, there are eight candidates -six men and two women- who have so far requested some measure of personal security because they feel their integrity at risk.