Political violence has taken over 50,000 lives in Mexico since 2018

According to the report Votar entre balas (Voting Amid Bullets) conducted by several non-governmental organizations, a total of 54,152 people have been killed due to political violence from 2018 to date, representing almost a third of the homicides recorded during the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)

The report, created by NGOs Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), Data Cívica, México Evalúa, and news platform Animal Político, assessed political-criminal violence and its implications for Mexican democracy a month after the general elections won by the ruling party's candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum.

The findings paint a harsh picture of ongoing political-criminal violence, noting 19 attacks in the first 15 days after the 2024 elections. Sandra Pellegrini, a Latin America specialist for ACLED, stated in the report that since the organization began its coverage in Mexico in January 2018, they have recorded over 50,000 deaths that, while not always involving specific political figures, have had political repercussions.

Regarding the recent electoral process, Tiziano Breda, another analyst for Latin America at ACLED, observed an increasing trend in violence compared to the 2021 and 2018 elections.

Among the most eye-popping insights, the report shows that six of the ten states with the highest levels of organized crime violence also exhibit the most political violence, suggesting a significant role played by criminal groups.

Data from the election cycle between September 2023 and June 2024 revealed that over 11 million people in Mexico were exposed to election-related violence, approximately 9% of the country's population.

Itzel Soto, an analyst from Data Cívica, shared statistics on political-criminal violence during the latest electoral process. From September 2023 to election day, there were 513 victims of attacks, including 130 candidates, 275 public officials, 50 party members, 47 elected officials, and 26 family members of politicians. Of the attacked candidates, 34 were killed, twice the number in the 2021 election.

The most violent states were Guerrero and Chiapas, with seven and five murders respectively, followed by Jalisco with four and Michoacán with three. The data also indicated that 31% of the attacked candidates were from the National Regeneration Movement and 14% from the coalition Fuerza y Corazón por México, formed by the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD).

The attacks influenced electoral participation, with reductions observed in eleven of the fifteen most violent municipalities, as stated by Sandra Ley, security coordinator for México Evalúa.