97 politicians killed during the election campaign, around a thousand attacks, assaults on ballot boxes. The vote in Mexico was marked by violence. 97 politicians killed during the election campaign, around a thousand attacks, assaults on ballot boxes. The vote in Mexico was marked by violence.
Blood never stopped flowing in Mexico during the elections of 6 June. A record number of murders of candidates and politicians had already been recorded in the preceding months — 97 since September 2020. And election day itself, on which the Chamber of Deputies was to be renewed in a kind of American-style midterm, alongside several governorships and thousands of mayoral seats, was also marked by violence. Meanwhile, the results confirmed a majority for the incumbent president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, albeit by a smaller margin than expected, which will make the path of reform more difficult for him.
On 6 June the Mexican people were called to the polls to renew the Chamber of Deputies, as well as to elect various regional and local representatives. The Mexican political system is not so different from that of the United States: halfway through the president's term, a vote is held on Parliament that can expand, reduce or strip away his majority. Violence on these occasions is nothing new. In 2016, at the last electoral round of this kind, 61 candidates and politicians were killed in the nine months preceding polling day. This year the numbers rose further, setting what is being described as a record in the country's history.
At least 97 candidates and local politicians were killed, around thirty of them in the last month alone. Added to this are almost a thousand reported attacks. Dozens of politicians decided to withdraw from their electoral races due to threats received, including bullets sent to their homes, severed pig's heads and threatening messages. And on polling day itself things were no better. Five polling station workers were killed, grenades were found at one polling station, at others human remains appeared in plastic bags, armed men stormed several ballot boxes, and two candidates were kidnapped, beaten and then released several hours later.
The violence of recent months has been predominantly local in nature, unlike the past when attacks and murders also targeted higher-ranking politicians. Drug trafficking groups are increasingly fragmented; the local dimension and territorial entrenchment are today stronger than ever, and the way in which these criminal groups secure their activities and room for manoeuvre no longer runs through pressure and threats directed at national politics, but through influence over municipal politics.
The election results confirmed that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will continue to enjoy an absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies, but only thanks to the coalition of which he is a part. His party Morena held 253 deputies out of a total of 500, meaning that on its own it exceeded the 50 per cent threshold. Now, however, it has lost something like 60 seats, a result that is nonetheless painless given that together with the other governing forces it reaches 279 deputies.
Mexicans have, in short, renewed their trust in López Obrador, who has enjoyed strong approval since the beginning of his term, but in a decidedly more modest fashion than expected, at least at the national level. At the regional level, by contrast, the governing coalition brought home 9 governors out of 15, a positive result.
The president's real objective was to achieve the qualified two-thirds majority in the Chamber, but he fell well short. Surpassing that threshold would have allowed López Obrador to put into practice a package of sweeping reforms known as the Quarta trasformación, which requires particularly strong support. The president belongs to the centre-left of the political spectrum and throughout his years in office has consistently pointed the finger at the neoliberal policies of his predecessors. His intention is to bring Mexico into a new era of nationalisations, particularly in the oil sector, and then use these revenues to fund a more robust welfare state. So far expectations have been disappointed, and Mexico's main social problems — crime and poverty — have done nothing but worsen, while López Obrador has distinguished himself above all by an excessive concentration of power.
