Mexican authorities announced Friday the killings of mayoral candidates Noé Ramos, who was running for re-election as mayor of El Mante (Tamaulipas), and Alberto García, the ruling party’s candidate for the mayorship of San José de Independencia (Oaxaca). These two deaths add to the numerous assassinations of candidates amidst the 2023-2024 electoral process that is slated to culminate with the June 2024 elections, a period some analysts predict could be the most violent in Mexico’s recent history.
The Attorney General’s Office of the State of Tamaulipas reported Friday about the attack perpetrated against Ramos, the outgoing municipal president of El Mante, indicating that police officers and forensic experts had been dispatched to the scene to gather evidence that would allow them to clarify the events and identify the possible perpetrators. Hours later, however, the Attorney General’s Office reported Ramos’s death. According to local media, Ramos was walking through the town’s streets to converse with residents when an unidentified man approached and attacked him with a knife. Jorge Cuellar, the head of the Executive Secretariat of the State System of Tamaulipas, stated that Ramos did not have security at the time of the attack.
The National Action Party (PAN) in Tamaulipas, the political party to which Ramos belonged, published a statement on Friday demanding the state government immediately clarify the events. They stated:
We demand that Governor Américo Villarreal Anaya act without delay to identify and apprehend those responsible for this horrendous act. This crime adds to the long list of injustices that remain unresolved in our state, setting a record of impunity and insecurity under his administration. It is unacceptable that, since the beginning of his term, protection for mayors has been withdrawn, putting their lives at risk, as tragically demonstrated by the assassination of Noé Ramos.
PAN also stated that, as a sign of mourning and protest, they would temporarily suspend all campaign activities in Tamaulipas. They concluded the statement by demanding a radical change in the security strategy, emphasizing that “organized crime cannot have a place in a government that prides itself on serving the people.”
The Attorney General’s Office of the State of Oaxaca confirmed on Friday the death of Alberto García, the Morena party’s candidate for the mayorship of San José Independencia. García and his wife, Agar Cancino, the current mayor of that town, had been reported missing since Wednesday. While Cancino was found alive, albeit with apparent signs of torture, by the authorities on Friday on an island known as Cerro Arena, García was found dead. Sergio López Sánchez, coordinator of the Parliamentary Group of the National Regeneration Movement Party (Morena), condemned García’s murder and called on the Attorney General’s Office to intensify investigations until the perpetrators are found.
The murders of Ramos and García add to the numerous assassinations and attacks against candidates in the Mexican federal elections to be held on June 2, 2024. Thus, according to a report by the organization Electoral Laboratory, the 2023-2024 electoral process is already the most violent in the country’s recent history. Electoral Laboratory found that, in addition to the nearly 30 confirmed assassinations of candidates, there are dozens of cases of attacks, assaults, disappearances, threats, or intimidation that politicians and aspirants for elected office in Mexico have suffered in almost ten months. Eduardo Guerrero, a consultant specializing in public security and organized crime, highlighted that organized crime has targeted municipal mayoral candidates as part of their strategy to uphold territorial control. Guerrero explains that these criminal elements intervene by endorsing specific candidates and can mobilize voters on election day to further their interests.
The murders of Ramos and García occurred despite the announcement made on Tuesday by the Mexican Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, indicating that the Government of Mexico was committed to the harmonious and peaceful development of the electoral process and had a Candidate Protection Strategy in place.
