Assassination of Mayoral Candidate in Guerrero Captured on Camera, Over 30 Candidates Killed Ahead of Mexico's Biggest Ever Elections

Reportedly, the killer arrived at the rally in a wheel chair as a rouse to get closer to the candidate.

Although the motive for this attack is unknown, at least two criminal groups operate in the disputed area; the Independent Cartel of Acapulco (CIDA) and Los Granados.

More than 450,000 people have been murdered and tens of thousands have gone missing since the government deployed the military to fight drug trafficking in 2006; the beginning of the modern drug war.

Frontrunner Claudia Sheinbaum, from the ruling Morena party, ended her campaign with a rally in the capital’s main public square. She is a former Mexico City mayor and a scientist by training, with a sizable lead in the polls with 53% of voter support, according to research firm Oraculus.

“We’re going to make history,” Sheinbaum told the cheering crowd.

“I say to the young women, to all the women of Mexico — colleagues, friends, sisters, daughters, mothers and grandmothers — you are not alone,” the 61-year-old said.

Sheinbaum has pledged to continue outgoing left-wing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s social programs and strategy of tackling crime at its roots — a controversial policy that he calls “hugs not bullets.”

Opposition presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez promises a tougher approach to cartel-related violence. Galvez, a center-right senator and businesswoman with Indigenous roots, is second with 36%.

“You will have the bravest president, a president who does confront crime,” she said.

Galvez accused Lopez Obrador of implementing “a security strategy where hugs have been for criminals and bullets for citizens.”

Nearly 100 million people are registered to vote for the next President, members of Congress, several state governors and local officials, in the biggest-ever elections in the country of 129 million.