http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/11/a-dead-man-wins-election-in-cartel-country.html
Corpse Elected Mayor in Mexican Cartel Country
Enrique Hernández fought the lawless—and the law—before he was shot to death at a campaign rally last month. But he won the election from the grave.
A political candidate shot dead at a campaign rally last month has been elected mayor of a town in western Mexico.
Enrique Hernández was caught in a hail of bullets fired from a moving vehicle on May 14 as he delivered a stump speech to a crowd of supporters in Yurécuaro, Michoacán. He had repeatedly accused the government of kowtowing to the Knights Templar drug cartel in the area. Three local law-enforcement officials were charged in connection with the murder, including the director of public safety of Yurécuaro.
Before Hernández was a candidate, he was the leader of a movement for armed self defense against the Knights Templar drug cartel in Yurécuaro. He was also an unsparing critic of official corruption who went so far as to single out by name the former governors of Michoacán, Fausto Vallejo and Jesus Reyna Garcia, as examples of officials who “permitted, authorized, and coordinated” cartel atrocities like extortion, murders, and despoiling of private land. He described the state government as working “in coordination” with the cartel and said the municipal government was infiltrated at every level.
“The criminals pay the authorities to make the system operate in favor of the criminals.”
Hernández was not the only candidate murdered in the 2015 Mexican election cycle. There were eight altogether. But unlike many of the others, his name stayed on the ballot—and he won. The preliminary count after last Sunday’s vote showed him with a comfortable margin, 10 percentage points higher than his nearest rival.
The mayoral race in Yurécuaro may be the first case in modern Mexico of a candidate winning an election from the grave, but his post in city hall will not be left vacant. In Hernández’s place, the office of mayor will be filled by Marco Antonio González, who after the murder had pledged to “go out and continue the campaign, making it clear that a vote for us is not a vote for a party slate but for the ideals of a man, Enrique Hernández.”
For 20 years, Yurécuaro has been the bastion of two political parties, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that totally dominated the country’s political life for most of the last century, and the left-of-center opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Hernández publicly accused both of cultivating an environment of corruption and giving free reign to organized crime in the contentious border zone between the states of Michoacán and Jalisco.
Cartel-linked violence in the region escalated in the weeks before and after his assassination. On May 1, a Mexican Army Special Forces helicopter was downed by a rocket-propelled grenade just across the border in Jalisco; six soldiers riding on board were killed in the attack. On May 22, 42 alleged members of a drug cartel were killed in a government raid on a private ranch a short distance from Yurécuaro in Michoacán. The Guardian reported the death toll was the highest yet from a confrontation involving Mexican security forces.
Click link for balance.
Corpse Elected Mayor in Mexican Cartel Country
Enrique Hernández fought the lawless—and the law—before he was shot to death at a campaign rally last month. But he won the election from the grave.
A political candidate shot dead at a campaign rally last month has been elected mayor of a town in western Mexico.
Enrique Hernández was caught in a hail of bullets fired from a moving vehicle on May 14 as he delivered a stump speech to a crowd of supporters in Yurécuaro, Michoacán. He had repeatedly accused the government of kowtowing to the Knights Templar drug cartel in the area. Three local law-enforcement officials were charged in connection with the murder, including the director of public safety of Yurécuaro.
Before Hernández was a candidate, he was the leader of a movement for armed self defense against the Knights Templar drug cartel in Yurécuaro. He was also an unsparing critic of official corruption who went so far as to single out by name the former governors of Michoacán, Fausto Vallejo and Jesus Reyna Garcia, as examples of officials who “permitted, authorized, and coordinated” cartel atrocities like extortion, murders, and despoiling of private land. He described the state government as working “in coordination” with the cartel and said the municipal government was infiltrated at every level.
“The criminals pay the authorities to make the system operate in favor of the criminals.”
Hernández was not the only candidate murdered in the 2015 Mexican election cycle. There were eight altogether. But unlike many of the others, his name stayed on the ballot—and he won. The preliminary count after last Sunday’s vote showed him with a comfortable margin, 10 percentage points higher than his nearest rival.
The mayoral race in Yurécuaro may be the first case in modern Mexico of a candidate winning an election from the grave, but his post in city hall will not be left vacant. In Hernández’s place, the office of mayor will be filled by Marco Antonio González, who after the murder had pledged to “go out and continue the campaign, making it clear that a vote for us is not a vote for a party slate but for the ideals of a man, Enrique Hernández.”
For 20 years, Yurécuaro has been the bastion of two political parties, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that totally dominated the country’s political life for most of the last century, and the left-of-center opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Hernández publicly accused both of cultivating an environment of corruption and giving free reign to organized crime in the contentious border zone between the states of Michoacán and Jalisco.
Cartel-linked violence in the region escalated in the weeks before and after his assassination. On May 1, a Mexican Army Special Forces helicopter was downed by a rocket-propelled grenade just across the border in Jalisco; six soldiers riding on board were killed in the attack. On May 22, 42 alleged members of a drug cartel were killed in a government raid on a private ranch a short distance from Yurécuaro in Michoacán. The Guardian reported the death toll was the highest yet from a confrontation involving Mexican security forces.
Click link for balance.
