A footage covering a campaign rally of Alfredo Cabrera ahead of Mexico‘s Sunday election captured the moment the Mayoral Candidate was shot and killed at very close range.
In the video, Alfredo Cabrera was first shot at the back of his head at very close range, before several shots continued amid the chaotic scene at his final campaign stop.
Watch the video below:
Cabrera was assassinated on Wednesday in Coyuca de Benitez adding to the increasing number of killings related to the presidential, congressional, and local polls on June 2. The total number of related deaths is now at least 22.
It was reported that a mayoral candidate in the central state of Morelos was killed and another aspirant was shot and wounded in western Jalisco state.
The late Alfredo Cabrera was a member of an opposition coalition backing Xochitl Galvez, a center-right senator and businesswoman with Indigenous roots, who is currently in second place in the presidential race.
Cabera’s murder was condemned by Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado on X, where she called it “cowardly” and urged the state prosecutor’s office to bring “the full weight of the law against the person or persons responsible”.
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in the past said the criminal cartels try to determine who will serve as mayor, either by running their candidates or killing potential rivals.
“They make an agreement and say, ‘this person is going to be mayor; we don’t want anyone else to register to run’, and anybody who does, well, they know [what to expect],” Obrador quoted then.
The high rate of insecurity for political aspirants forced the Mexican government to provide bodyguards for about 250 electoral candidates.
Despite that, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), one of the opposition coalition parties, says the government has “not made even the slightest effort to guarantee the safety of the candidates”.