Earlier this Thursday, a municipal official and rising political candidate was shot dead in Veracruz, located in eastern Mexico, according to authorities.
Investigators report the killing of Manuel Hernández, the general director of policy and government for the Misantla city hall, who was aiming for a seat in the local legislature as a Morena candidate. Witnesses say two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on the politician while he was traveling in a car in the Santa Margarita community of Misantla, a Morena-governed municipality in the northern part of Veracruz. Sources close to Morena indicated that Hernández was a potential contender for the local deputy position.
The State Attorney General’s Office said it opened a case and noted that prosecutors, forensic experts, and ministerial police are at the scene conducting the lawful procedures.
In less than a month, Veracruz has witnessed two political murders. The state has long endured a violent cycle tied to organized crime groups’ operations. On January 27, the president of the Municipal Committee of the opposition party Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) in Cuitláhuac, Alejandro Naredo, was killed in a public street shooting. More recently, the former mayor of Sayula de Alemán, Andrés Valencia Ríos, affiliated with the opposition National Action Party (PAN), was shot dead in the southern part of Veracruz. These killings unfold amid a broader electoral process aimed at renewing the governorship and 50 local deputy seats (30 elected through votes and 20 through proportional representation).
Mexico is set to hold its largest elections in history on June 2, when more than 97 million citizens will be called to renew 20,375 federal positions, including the presidency, all 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and the 128 seats in the Senate, along with nine state governments.
Data Civil, a civil organization, notes that Veracruz ranked fourth nationwide in 2023 for the highest number of aggressions against people connected to politics and government. The organization Votar Entre Balas, a project monitoring Data Civil, recorded that 2023 closed as the year with the most politically charged-criminal violence in Mexico, totaling 574 aggressions, 42 of which occurred in Veracruz [Data Cívica].