Councilwoman Assassinated in Guerrero Amid Mexico's Political Violence
A local councilwoman, Esmeralda Garzon, was gunned down on Friday as she left her home in the southern state of Guerrero, marking the second female politician murdered in Mexico since Claudia Sheinbaum became the country's first female president last week.
Garzon, who led the equity and gender commission in Tixtla, was shot dead outside her house, according to local media reports. The Guerrero state attorney general's office announced that police were dispatched to collect evidence and apprehend those responsible.
Elected under the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Garzon later supported Sheinbaum's Morena party in the June 2 elections, as evidenced by her social media posts. Garzon was not a candidate in these elections.
Her murder follows the recent assassination of Yolanda Sanchez Figueroa, the mayor of a town in western Mexico, and her bodyguard outside a gym, just hours after Sheinbaum's presidential victory.
At least 23 political candidates were killed during their campaigns ahead of the elections, making this the most violent election cycle in modern Mexican history, according to official statistics from Reuters. However, non-governmental organizations like Data Civica report even higher numbers, counting at least 30 candidate killings and over 50 deaths when including relatives and other victims.
In the days leading up to the elections, a mayoral candidate's murder was captured on camera, occurring just one day after another mayoral candidate in Morelos was assassinated. A week prior, nine people were killed in two attacks on mayoral candidates in Chiapas, though both candidates survived. Last month, six people, including a minor and mayoral candidate Lucero Lopez, were killed in an ambush after a campaign rally in La Concordia. In April, another mayoral hopeful was shot dead just hours after beginning her campaign.
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