Masked Men Stop Mexico Presidential Candidate's Vehicle, Ask Her To Resolve Violence If Elected

Mexico's top presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum was stopped by a group of masked men Sunday, who reportedly asked her to resolve the violence in the southern state of Chiapas if she won in the upcoming elections.

Ahead of elections on June 2, Sheinbaum was traveling in her car for campaigning purposes. Sheinbaum was in the front passenger seat when the masked men demanded her to promise that violence in the southern state would be put to an end, AP News reported.

The leading presidential candidate's vehicle window was down as she listened to the men's demands calmly. The men filmed the entire interaction on their phones, and one of them shook hands with her before allowing the vehicle to move further.

Those masked men identified themselves as locals and said that they felt "powerless" as the current government failed to curb insecurity in their state.

They asked that she, as president, do something to prevent their town, Motozintla, on Mexico's southern border with Guatemala, from facing the same problems as other communities in the area, avoiding becoming a "disaster."

While campaigning in Chiapas, Sheinbaum was accompanied by the army and national guard for security.

The masked men incident took place Sunday morning and later that day, Sheinbaum confirmed the same, calling it a "very strange" encounter as it was reported by a media outlet critical of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's administration.

Sheinbaum further said that she believed those men were not a part of any organized crime group.

A federal lawmaker from López Obrador's party, who was accompanying Sheinbaum during the incident, initially shared details of the encounter on the social platform X.

Federal deputy Carmen Patricia Armendáriz, a federal lawmaker accompanying Sheinbaum during the incident, initially shared details of the encounter on X (formerly known as Twitter) but later deleted it.

In the post, Armendáriz said they were stopped by masked men allegedly linked to one of the cartels fighting for control of the area.