Mexico: Candidate starts election campaign from coffin to highlight deaths caused by COVID

A Mexican congressional candidate on April 6 launched his election campaign from a coffin to raise awareness over thousands of deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic and cartel-related violence. A lower house candidate for the Encuentro Solidario party in the northern state of Chihuahua, Carlos Mayorga reportedly said that he was sending a stark message to all the politicians that people were losing their lives “because of their indifference.”

As per reports and images shared on social media, Mayorga arrived inside a gold-coloured casket at a campaign rally on a bridge between the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas. While accompanied by his aides who were dressed in personal protective equipment (PPE). Mayorga’s aides were also carrying bouquets of flowers to draw attention to the COVID-19 death toll in Mexico. As per the Johns Hopkins University tally as of April 7, 2,256,509 have been infected with novel coronavirus with 2,256,509 casualties. 

As per reports, Mayorga said that politicians “have remained silent about the high levels of organised crime. They have remained silent about the chaotic Covid-19 situation.” Apart from people dying of novel coronavirus, reportedly over 300,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since the government deployed the military against drugs in 2006. Mayorga’s ‘campaign from coffin’ is for June midterm elections which also brought a wave of political violence with at least 16 candidates being reportedly murdered. 

8 Killed In Cartel Battleground

As per the Associated Press report, just earlier this week, eight bullet-ridden bodies were discovered in western Mexico township where drug cartels have been waging a war. Reportedly, the prosecutors’ office in Michoacán state said that eight bodies were of all men and were found in the township of Aguililla. However, the prosecutors did not mention how the bodies were mutilated but local media reports stated that they had been decapitated. 

Further on March 29, Mexico revised its COVID-19 death toll, increasing the tally by nearly 60 per cent and surpassing Brazil with the world’s second-highest fatalities. As per the new tally, the deaths in Mexico jumped by 75,000 in just about a month and a half in December last year from the total grim milestone of 220,000. 

Image credits: @CarlosMayorgaPeriodista/Facebook/@luis_gj/Twitter