A candidate for one of Mexico’s regional parliaments launched his election campaign in a coffin to mark the thousands of deaths caused by the coronavirus pandemic and cartel violence.
• Read also: Washington wants to do “much more” in global access to vaccines
• Read also: A third wave all over the planet
• Read also: In Mexico, whale watching to forget the pandemic
Carlos Mayorga, candidate in the state of Chihuahua (north), explained on Tuesday that he “decided to launch this political campaign inside a coffin to send a message to politicians: they have a dead people, a city, a community, city, state dead because of their indifference ”.
Mr Mayorga arrived in a golden-colored coffin during an election rally held on a bridge between the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, in US Texas.
He was accompanied by assistants dressed in bio-protective suits and carrying bouquets of flowers to draw attention to the death toll of more than 200,000 from COVID-19 in Mexico, the third highest in the world.
Politicians “have remained silent about the high levels of organized crime. They have remained silent on the chaotic situation of the Covid ”, he declared after having extricated himself from the coffin where he lay.
Since late 2006, when the government launched a military offensive against drug cartels, some 300,000 people have been murdered in Mexico, one of the most violent countries in the world.
The campaign for elections in the 32 states of Mexico that began on Sunday was preceded by the assassination of 16 candidates.
Some 94.4 million Mexicans are called to vote on June 6 to elect 500 representatives of regional parliaments, including 15 of the 32 governors.