Claudia Sheinbaum was campaigning for president in southern Mexico when hooded men approached her car, filming\u00a0the interaction\u00a0as they implored her to keep their town from being taken over by gangs. <\/p>\n
One man said he felt helpless, and that the government had \u201cnever done anything for these lands.\u201d They lived in Chiapas, Mexico\u2019s poorest state and an\u00a0increasingly\u00a0important territory for criminal organizations moving illegal drugs, firearms and migrants from\u00a0neighboring Guatemala.\u00a0Sheinbaum thanked the men, shaking one of their hands before her car pulled away. <\/p>\n
The former Mexico City mayor\u00a0is the frontrunner in a landmark election\u00a0this weekend\u00a0where Mexico is all but certain to emerge with its first female president \u2013 a remarkable achievement in a country known for its patriarchal culture and high rates of gender-based violence, where\u00a0around 10 women\u00a0are murdered every day. <\/p>\n
Sheinbaum is riding on a wave of popularity\u00a0with the support\u00a0of her long-time ally, Mexican President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, and their leftist Morena party. Trailing her in the polls is former senator Xochitl G\u00e1lvez, from the conservative PAN party, who is representing a coalition of\u00a0opposition parties. <\/p>\n
But what should have been celebrated as a ground-breaking election\u00a0has become overshadowed by the bloodiest election campaign\u00a0in Mexico\u2019s history,\u00a0and ongoing high levels of violence across the country. <\/p>\n
At least\u00a034 political candidates or applicants have been murdered\u00a0since\u00a0June 2023\u00a0as gangs try and influence those coming into power, according to a report by research group Laboratorio Electoral, which also found hundreds of attacks on candidates and people related to the current electoral process. <\/p>\n
And while\u00a0the murder rate has fallen in Mexico\u00a0between 2019 and 2022, in absolute numbers the country is still reeling from historically high levels of homicides of around 30,000 people\u00a0murdered\u00a0each year, say experts. <\/p>\n
The central challenge for the next president will be\u00a0convincing voters that she can end the near-certain impunity in Mexico;\u00a0around 95%\u00a0of all crimes nationwide\u00a0went unsolved\u00a0in the country in\u00a02022, according to think tank\u00a0Mexico Evalua. <\/p>\n
Mexico is a world leader when it comes to gender equality in elected office, which was cemented in 2019 constitution\u00a0reform.\u00a0It\u00a0outflanks\u00a0several countries in\u00a0terms of women\u2019s\u00a0parliamentary representation. <\/p>\n
Yet Mexico remains a dangerous place to be a woman, with\u00a0sky-high femicide\u00a0rates for\u00a0the region.\u00a0The most\u00a0recent data\u00a0from Mexico\u2019s\u00a0National Institute of Statistics and Geography found that at least 11,852 femicides were recorded in the first three years of L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s presidency \u2013 higher than the 7,439 reported during the same period of Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto\u2019s presidency (2012-2018). <\/p>\n
With security topping voter concerns, both Sheinbaum and G\u00e1lvez have largely remained coy about their proposals. Neither\u00a0has\u00a0repudiated a nearly two-decades-long approach of relying on the armed forces to tackle organized crime \u2013 which\u00a0has coincided with\u00a0historically high levels of homicides. <\/p>\n
Sheinbaum, a former climate scientist, has pledged to continue with her predecessor\u2019s policies. She has pointed to her record as Mexico City mayor, with her team indicating having improved conditions for police and better intelligence gathering about criminal networks. <\/p>\n
Galvez has been critical of L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s non-confrontational approach to cartels. She has suggested\u00a0pulling forces back from\u00a0domestic security\u00a0roles, increasing the number of police in violent areas, and building a new high\u00a0security prison. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2018, millions of Mexicans voted for change with hope, but the truth is that it did not happen,\u201d\u00a0G\u00e1lvez\u00a0said during a presidential debate in April, taking aim at the incumbent\u2019s approach to tackling organized crime. <\/p>\n
\u201cClaudia Sheinbaum is offering to continue the hugs for criminals \u2026 I am offering to build a Mexico where we can end violence, but above all, to bet on health and education.\u201d <\/p>\n
Both have spoken of the need to strengthen police and civilian institutions, and better use intelligence and coordination. \u201cBut the extent to which either one of them really means to emphasize or follow through on that is very unclear,\u201d Brewer said. <\/p>\n
Experts have been underwhelmed by the lack of new approaches to the security situation, saying there is a connection between militarization and more bloodshed in the country since its inception\u00a0in\u00a02006,\u00a0when former President Felipe Calder\u00f3n declared an all-out-war against criminal groups. <\/p>\n
Incumbent L\u00f3pez Obrador won the presidency in 2018 on a platform of demilitarizing the country\u2019s war against drug cartels,\u00a0vowing\u00a0to restore peace with \u201chugs, not bullets.\u201d <\/p>\n
Popular social welfare programs would address the root causes of economic insecurity, instead of violent confrontations with criminal groups,\u00a0he promised. It was a strategy that saw the son of Mexican drug lord Joaquin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d\u00a0Guzman released\u00a0on the orders of L\u00f3pez Obrador in 2019\u00a0to avoid bloodshed.\u00a0He was later re-arrested and extradited to the US. <\/p>\n
However,\u00a0he never really de-militarized public security.\u00a0L\u00f3pez Obrador instead merged several law-enforcement agencies, such as the federal police, to create the\u00a0National Guard\u00a0that was,\u00a0in principle, to be under civilian command. But\u00a0he soon after\u00a0placed\u00a0the\u00a0body under the Secretary of Defense, sparking criticism across the political spectrum,\u00a0which said\u00a0it was furthering\u00a0militarization\u00a0in Mexico. <\/p>\n
The Supreme Court upheld an opposition complaint and ordered L\u00f3pez Obrador to return the National Guard to civilian jurisdiction. He said he would follow suit, but the National Guard still reports to the Secretary of Defense. <\/p>\n
This creation was part of what\u00a0Brewer described as a \u201cpopulist\u2026and highly visible measure that\u201d\u00a0intended to give\u00a0the perception that something is being done about crime. The National Guard has gone on to take\u00a0over several civilian\u00a0functions including building infrastructure projects and airport management \u00ad\u2013 a situation ripe for corruption, warn Mexico watchers. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile,\u00a0criminal groups have only expanded\u00a0their reach. <\/p>\n
A May report by the Crisis Group documented limited crime-fighting where there were large military deployments in areas most affected by warring cartels. Instead, the report found that \u201ca set of largely unspoken rules has been established, encouraging illegal groups to reduce and conceal the violence they perpetrate,\u201d the report wrote. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn exchange, authorities have turned a blind eye to a degree of illegality, enabling these organisations to diversify their trafficking operations (including into newer illicit drugs such as fentanyl), expand their extortion rackets, branch out into legal business, and assume greater control of communities and local governments.\u201d <\/p>\n
The report found there was also political pressure to reduce the recorded rate of lethal violence has led to \u201cmurders being logged under other causes of death or going unrecorded.\u201d <\/p>\n
There is a through line between militarization and gender-based violence in Mexico, say experts. <\/p>\n
Feminist groups in the country began documenting a \u201cdramatic increase in women being killed by firearms\u201d after 2007 as well as women being targeted in the public sphere,\u201d said\u00a0Gema Kloppe-Santamar\u00eda, assistant professor of Latin American History at George Washington University. <\/p>\n
Female homicides often fail to get prosecuted, with 88.6% impunity rate for femicide cases, according to Mexico Evalua. <\/p>\n
Both candidates have recognized the crisis of femicide, but Sheinbaum, who holds a sizeable polling lead against Galvaz, has a tense relationship with some feminists \u201cwho encountered lots of repression by Mexico City police under the purview of Sheinbaum,\u201d said Kloppe-Santamar\u00eda. <\/p>\n
Sheinbaum has touted her efforts for women and girls, saying there was \u201czero impunity\u201d to femicides in Mexico City during her time as leader, and that there was a large reduction in femicides under her watch. Though the claims have\u00a0not\u00a0borne out\u00a0after some scrutiny, say critics. <\/p>\n
Amid ongoing \u201cgender-based violence, including femicides and disappearances,\u201d Kloppe-Santamar\u00eda said, getting a female president at this moment feels\u00a0\u201cvery paradoxical.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
Claudia Sheinbaum was campaigning for president in southern Mexico when hooded men approached her car, filming\u00a0the interaction\u00a0as they implored her to keep their town from being taken over by gangs. One man said he felt helpless, and that the government had \u201cnever done anything for these lands.\u201d They lived in Chiapas, Mexico\u2019s poorest state and <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}