Development: On 12 April, the mayor of Tlanepantla, in Mexico's central state of Puebla, was gunned down while driving his car.
Significance: The latest political murder is a sharp reminder of the multitude of security challenges faced by the Mexican authorities and the difficult task awaiting the victor in July’s presidential elections. While the motive of the killing is as yet unclear, Tlanepantla is located within Puebla’s notorious ‘Red Triangle’, a lawless area where oil pipeline theft is rife.
- Mayor José Efraín García García was driving on the road to Tepeaca, one of the municipalities making up the ‘Red Triangle’, when his car was intercepted by assailants who opened fire from their own vehicle. He was rushed to hospital by a relative who was driving another car, but paramedics could not save him.
- García represented the left-wing Partido del Trabajo (PT), which is part of the coalition supporting the frontrunner in the presidential election, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of the left-wing Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena) party.
- While addressing a rally yesterday in the north-western state of Sinaloa, the birthplace of one of Mexico’s most notorious drug traffickers, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Loera, López Obrador repeated his determination to change Mexico’s “failed” security strategy “however much they question me”, and “restore peace and tranquility” to the country.
- López Obrador said he would “talk with everyone”. He did not clarify whether by this he meant leaders of drug trafficking organisations (DTOs) but he has stated that he would be prepared to offer them a negotiated amnesty.
- The oil theft phenomenon is multifaceted, however, and it is not clear whether ‘talking’ to lots of people would suffice. While large DTOs have muscled in on the lucrative business, local gangs of 'huachicoleros' remain heavily involved and they are often shielded by the local population who receive cheap fuel in exchange. The ‘Red Triangle’ accounted for 60% of all the illegal oil taps in Mexico reported by the state-run oil firm Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in the last 17 years.
Looking ahead: Political violence is likely to increase in the run-up to the 1 July general election. Mexico’s national association of mayors reported that in the two years to March 2018 as many as 52 serving mayors were murdered.
