Electoral campaigns officially begin, mayoral candidates assassinated, Canada's visa requirement for Mexicans, AMLO "censored" by Youtube

Week of 02/25/2024 - 03/02/2024

Friday officially kicks off campaign period

Friday (03/01) marks the official start of the campaign period leading up to the June 02, 2024 general election. The top three presidential candidates, Claudia Sheinbaum, Xóchitl Gálvez, and Jorge Álvarez Máynez, began their campaigns as soon as possible on Friday morning. Sheinbaum, the candidate for Morena, held a rally in Mexico City’s main square, Gálvez of the Fuerza y Corazón por México coalition visited the state of Zacatecas, and Álvarez Máynez of Movimiento Ciudadano shared a message via his social media. 

In addition to electing a new president, most likely Mexico’s first female president, Mexicans will also be voting for over 20,000 other positions at the federal, state, and local levels, making this the largest-ever election in Mexican history. To learn more about the electoral process, the candidates, and the latest polls, visit our Mexico Elections Guide 2024. 

Assassination of two mayoral candidates in Michoacán

On Monday (02/26), two mayoral hopefuls in the city of Maravatío, Michoacán were killed within just a few hours of each other. 

Around midnight, Armando Pérez Luna, the 58-year-old presumed candidate for Partido Acción Nacional, was found dead in his car. According to witnesses, he was shot to death by a man who had approached his car on a motorcycle as the candidate was on his way to pick up his wife. It was confirmed by Morena officials only seven hours beforehand that the ruling party’s aspiring mayoral candidate in the same city, Miguel Angel Zavala Reyes, had been killed, also by being shot in his car. 

These killings underscore serious concerns about the impact of political violence on the 2024 election cycle, especially violence linked to organized crime. According to El Universal, 18 politicians and candidates have already been assassinated throughout the country during the 2024 election cycle, and the official campaign period did not even begin until Friday (03/01). 

Canada reinstates visa requirements for Mexicans

Canadian officials from the immigration ministry announced on Thursday (02/29) that Canada would require a visitor visa from Mexican nationals seeking to enter the country. This requirement had originally been lifted in 2016 in order to foster better trade relations between the two countries, but recent concerns over the increasing number of Mexicans seeking asylum in Canada prompted this reinstatement. 

President López Obrador noted during a press conference last week that Mexican and Canadian officials would work together to address the issue of increased flows of migration from Mexico to Canada, but the President expressed “respectful disapproval” when the Canadian government’s decision was announced. 

López Obrador criticizes YouTube after a recording of his morning press conference is erased

In his morning press conference on Monday (02/26), President López Obrador accused YouTube of “censorship” after the platform took down a recorded video of a previous press conference in which he had revealed the phone number of a New York Times journalist. 

The disclosure of the journalist’s personal contact information sparked concern over the safety of journalists and an investigation of the president by the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information, and Personal Data Protection (INAI), but AMLO has denied any wrongdoing on his part. He argued that YouTube was “controlled by conservatives” who have made the platform a political tool.