Election season in Mexico has always been a dangerous game, with politicians regularly knocked off by cartels seeking to install ‘friendly’ candidates by process of elimination.

Since the start of the electoral process in Sep. 2020, eighty-eight politicians have been murdered nationwide, according to TeleSur. The most recent, Citizens Movement (MC) candidate Alma Barragan, was shot to death while driving by unidentified assailants, just a few hours after she attended a campaign event. Barragan marks the third murdered candidate in Guanajuato alone ahead of the region’s June 6 election.

“Violence in this electoral process must stop. We call on the federal and state governments to guarantee candidates’ safety. Mexico deserves peace,” the MC party said in a statement.

Besides Barragan, the MC also experienced this month the assassination of candidate Abel Murrieta who was running for Cajeme mayorship and was shot on the streets on May 13.

Political violence in this electoral process has put strains on the Security Secretariat that has received several protection requests from electoral candidates. Recently, the Etellekt consulting firm reported that 88 politicians have been murdered since the start of the electoral process in Sep. 2020. 

On June 6, Mexico will celebrate the largest subnational election in its history since there are 500 federal lawmakers, 15 governorships, 30 local congresses, and 1,900 city councils to be elected. -TeleSur

Meanwhile, 18 potential murder victims Mexican politicians belonging to the same political party have registered as transgender women in order to circumvent a constitutional “gender parity” quota, according to the Catholic News Agency, which we’re guessing doesn’t approve.

To avoid being left out of the 2021 Mexican elections because of a constitutional principle of “gender parity”, 18 male candidates from the Force for Mexico party in Tlaxcala state have filed for candidacy as trans women.

They did so in order to conform to the 2019 constitutional reform that requires that the slate of candidates of political parties throughout Mexico be made up of 50% women and 50% men. -CNA

When criticized over the move, the president of Force for Mexico, Louis Vargas, told Televisa News that his party’s candidates “are not fake” trans, adding “The trans issue is three-pronged: transgender, transsexual, and transvestite. And the issue for the (trans) community is very broad. I can’t get into people’s privacy and tell them ‘you yes and you no.’”

Maybe they’ll shoot back?