Mexico’s bloodiest election in recent memory has been marked by dozens of assassinations. U.S. is hardly there but we can learn from our neighbor.
Timeline of Trump rally shooting and assassination attempt
An alleged lone gunman opened fire at a rally for Donald Trump in Pennsylvania. The shooting is being investigated as an assassination attempt.
The motive of the man who tried to gun down Donald Trump matters and what we do with it matters even more — just look at Mexico.
Trump’s would-be assassin jolted our conscience, in part, because political violence remains a rarity in America despite rising polarization and pro-gun laws fanning an already fiery atmosphere.
We don’t know why the gunman targeted Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. What we know is that the former president survived, that one person was killed and two others were critically wounded.
That’s enough to scare the wits out of me. I’ve been watching closely what happens in Mexico where bullets routinely determine the fate of the country, and I want us to do everything in our power to avoid going into that abyss.
Political killings this year crazy even by Mexico’s standards
Drug-related violence has long swept Mexico into chaos and turmoil. But this year’s brutal killings of political candidates sent shocked waves even with the normalization of violence there.
The bloodiest Mexico’s election in recent memory was marked by the killing of dozens of local candidates and more than 100 violent political events involving kidnappings, attempted murders and attacks on family members, according to various reports.
The targeted killings included Jorge Huerta Cabrera, a candidate running for a seat council in Izucar de Matamoros. He was shot death at a rally where his wife and a colleague were also wounded.
Days earlier in May, Alfredo Cabrera, a mayoral candidate in the state of Guerrero was gunned down. The same month, nine people were killed in two attacks against mayoral candidates in Chiapas.
But there, political bloodshed is drug, and gang-related
The two leading female presidential candidates weren’t targeted or least didn’t face attempts to their lives — thankfully.
President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, who will be sworn in on Oct. 1 as the country’s first female president, is widely expected to follow the policies and tactics of outgoing president Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has dismissed the violence as “sensationalism.”
Drawing lessons out of Mexico and its approach to the drug-related violence and political killings is crucial as we in America grapple with what to do next in the wake of Saturday’s shooting.
In Mexico, like in so many other places in the world, the political violence is carried out deliberately by organized crime seeking to influence elections and ultimately seize a grip on government at all levels, experts have told media outlets.
Simply put, Mexico has normalized political assassinations, drug-related killings, kidnappings and extortion.
We’re not Mexico, but that’s not the point
Criminals and assassins seemingly go unpunished, blatantly taking control of certain towns and entire regions of the country where residents can’t tell the bad actors from the government.
I anticipate many of you screaming saying we’re not Mexico, that we, in America, have laws and respect them.
The inflection point is real. What we do next, especially while the investigation unfolds, matters.
Details about the gunman are still emerging. What we know is that a 20-year-old who used an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle bought by his father.
Federal officials initially said they’re investigating the incident as a potential case of domestic terrorism, though they’ve also said they believed he acted alone.
The motive might determine the trajectory of this nation.
The lesson is, we can thwart violence from spreading
There’s a huge difference between acting alone and coordinating as part of a network like that employed in Mexico with the goal of wreaking havoc on all aspects of life.
We don’t want that in America.
We don’t want to turn to violence rather the ballot box to have a say over who governs us, the people. We don’t want a country where the mere act of running for public office is potentially a death sentence.
Our own actions may determine the trajectory of this nation.
We can’t equate the motive of a gunman – if in fact he acted alone – to the established drug cartels and organized crime in Mexico. But the violent ideology behind one individual and the ubiquitous inflamed rhetoric around us can prompt others who are ready to commit political mayhem.
Do we freeze in our tracks and do nothing in the wake of violence? Or do we wake up to the horror of what could be and take collective action.
If you still can’t picture how badly things can go, just look at south of our border.
Elvia Díaz is editorial page editor for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, (formerly Twitter), @elviadiaz1.
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Publish date : 2024-07-15 19:25:26
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Publish date : 2024-07-16 10:48:50
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