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Mayoral hopeful’s murder in Mexico captured on camera — the 23rd candidate killed before the elections
Mexico’s campaign season came to a bloody end as a gunman shot dead an aspiring mayor at a rally on Wednesday, days before the country is expected to elect its first woman president.
His murder brings the number of candidates who have been murdered to at least 23 during what has been a particularly violent electoral process in the Latin American nation, according to an official count.
Alfredo Cabrera, a mayoral candidate for an opposition coalition, was gunned down in the southern state of Guerrero, causing chaos and panic among people attending the rally.
Cabrera’s murder was captured on camera, with the footage showing him smiling and flanked by fans before he was shot several times.
The state prosecutor’s office said that “the alleged assailant was killed at the scene.” Three people were also injured and two others detained, according to witnesses.
FRANCISCO ROBLES/AFP via Getty Images
Cabrera belonged to the same opposition coalition as presidential candidate Xochitl Galvez, who expressed indignation over his murder.
“He was a generous and good man,” she wrote on social media.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), part of the opposition coalition, accused the government of having “not made even the slightest effort to guarantee the safety of the candidates.”
Cabrera’s death came just one day after a mayoral candidate in the central Mexican state of Morelos was murdered, while another one was wounded by gunfire in western Jalisco state.
Last week, nine people were killed in two attacks against mayoral candidates in the southern state of Chiapas. The two candidates survived.
Earlier this month, six people, including a minor and mayoral candidate Lucero Lopez, were killed in an ambush after a campaign rally in the municipality of La Concordia, neighboring Villa Corzo.
One mayoral hopeful was shot dead last month just as she began campaigning.
Around 27,000 soldiers and National Guard members will be deployed to reinforce security on election day.
New leader will face crisis of cartel violence
Tackling the cartel violence that has convulsed Mexico and turned it into one of the most dangerous countries in the world will be among the major challenges facing the next leader, along with managing migration and delicate relations with the neighboring United States.
More than 450,000 people have been murdered and tens of thousands have gone missing since the government deployed the army to fight drug trafficking in 2006.
Barring a major upset, a woman appears almost certain to be elected leader of the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking country when millions of Mexicans vote on Sunday.
Frontrunner Claudia Sheinbaum, from the ruling Morena party, ended her campaign with a rally in the capital’s main public square.
“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.
Difusion Fuente Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo / Handout via REUTERS
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.”
At her closing rally in the northern city of Monterrey, Galvez promised a tougher approach to cartel-related violence.
“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.”
Woman poised to be next president
Sheinbaum, a former Mexico City mayor and a scientist by training, enjoys a sizable lead in the polls with 53 percent of voter support, according to research firm Oraculus.
Galvez, a center-right senator and businesswoman with Indigenous roots, is second with 36 percent.
Medios y Media / Getty Images
The only man running — long-shot centrist Jorge Alvarez Maynez — has 11 percent.
Thousands of Sheinbaum’s supporters massed Wednesday to hear her speak, with many wearing purple — the color of the ruling party.
“The people have woken up. We don’t want the old governments to rob us anymore because the poor come first,” said Soledad Hernandez, a 23-year-old housewife from the southern state of Oaxaca.
Sheinbaum owes much of her popularity to Lopez Obrador, widely known as AMLO — a close ally who has an approval rating of more than 60 percent but is only allowed to serve one term.
“People from the countryside had nothing and now they’re better off with AMLO,” said Maria Isabel Zacarias, 55, a street food seller who came from the south to hear Sheinbaum speak.
Bertha Diaz, a 71-year-old Galvez supporter, said she feared that if Sheinbaum wins, “it will be more of the same like with Lopez Obrador, who has sunk Mexico and wants to turn it into another Venezuela.”
Nearly 100 million people are registered to vote for president, members of Congress, several state governors and local officials, in the biggest-ever elections in the country of 129 million.
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez said Tuesday — before Cabrera’s murder — that 22 people running for local office had been killed since September.
Some non-governmental organizations have reported an even higher toll, including Data Civica, which has counted at least 30 killings of candidates.
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Avian flu confirmed in a Colorado farmworker, marking fourth human case in U.S. since March
A case of H5 influenza, also known as bird flu or avian influenza, has been confirmed in a man who was working at a dairy farm in northeastern Colorado. That’s according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which said it is the fourth confirmed human case in the United States since an outbreak among cows that appears to have started in March.
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The man was working in Northern Colorado and had direct contact with cattle that were infected with avian flu. To this point, the only U.S. cases have been among farmworkers.
The CDPHE says the person who tested positive for the avian flu only had one symptom — pink eye, otherwise known as conjunctivitis. He was tested after reporting his symptoms and received an antiviral treatment with oseltamivir afterwards. Those are the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended steps when there’s a confirmed human case. The man, whose identity is not being released, has recovered.
This is the first confirmed a case of avian flu in Colorado since 2022. CDPHE state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said the risk to the public is low.
“Avian flu viruses are currently spreading among animals, but they are not adapted to spread from person to person. Right now, the most important thing to know is that people who have regular exposure to infected animals are at increased risk of infection and should take precautions when they have contact with sick animals,” Herlihy said in a prepared statement.
Jill Hunsaker Ryan, the executive director of the CDPHE said “Coloradans should feel confident that the state is doing everything possible to mitigate the virus.” The guidance for farmworkers includes the recommendation that people shouldn’t touch animals who are sick or who have died. For people who must handle such animals, the following is recommended:
– Wear personal protective equipment that includes an N95 respirator as well as eye protection and gloves.
– Wash hands with soap and water afterward. An alcohol-based hand rub could also be used if soap and water is not available.
“We can make these recommendations, but I think all of us realize that this may be a bit challenging for workers to comply with that,” the CDC’s Tim Uyeki said at a briefing with rural doctors last month.
It is unclear whether the man was wearing personal protective equipment.
“Our partnership with the Colorado Department of Agriculture has been crucial in disseminating information to dairy farmers across the state,” Hunsaker Ryan said.
The three other confirmed human cases of avian flu since the March outbreak in cattle were found in Texas and Michigan.
Anyone who has been working with dairy cows and begins to feel sick with possible avian flu symptoms should call the CDPHE at 303-692-2700 during the day or 303-370-9395 after hours.
More information about avian flu can be found on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s website.
News of the case comes as federal officials are now debating whether and when to deploy 4.8 million doses of bird flu vaccine that are being filled into vials this summer. Finland announced last month it would offer shots to workers who might be exposed to the virus.
Vaccinating farm workers?
U.S. officials say manufacturing of the vaccines is expected to be done by August.
Vaccinemaker CSL Seqirus says it is still in talks with the Food and Drug Administration to clear use of their shots in humans. After that, it would be up to the CDC to decide whether to roll out the shots for farm workers.
“No final decisions are made, but we are in the process of robust discussion,” the CDC’s Principal Deputy Director Dr. Nirav Shah told reporters on Tuesday.
Shah said the vaccine debate hinges in part on whether more distribution of flu treatments might be a better alternative.
“If our goal is to reduce the number of infections that may occur, we have to wonder whether vaccination is the best route for that, or whether there may be other routes that are faster or even more effective such as, as I mentioned, more widespread use of antivirals,” said Shah.
Officials are also discussing other measures to help workers infected with the virus, Shah added, including the possibility of offering financial help with sick leave and further outreach.
Farm workers may also not be willing to get the shots, even if they were to become eligible for vaccination.
“If right now, H5 is not perceived as a pressing threat among farm workers, and I’m not speculating as to whether it is or not, but if that is the case, then uptake may not be robust,” said Shah.
Nearly lost forever, a family heirloom painting turned out to be a Texas masterpiece and sold for six figures at Dallas-based auction house last week.
According to Heritage Auctions, the painting of Texas bluebonnets was loaded onto a trailer with donations bound for Goodwill, all belongings of a woman who was moving to the West Coast for retirement.
She had received it as a gift from an extended family member in Texas to commemorate her birth in 1922, according to the auction house. At the last minute, the woman decided “it was too pretty to surrender,” and she kept it.
After the woman died, her daughter kept the painting on display in her own home near Tacoma, Washington.
For years, no one in the family realized the artwork was an original by “the father of Texas painting,” Julian Onderdonk. The family recently made the discovery and decided to put it up for auction “to someone who will genuinely appreciate it,” the original owner’s grandson told Heritage Auctions.
On June 29, the painting, named “A Field of Bluebonnets, San Antonio” sold for $112,500. In the same auction, two other Onderdonk paintings sold for $106,250 and $93,750, respectively.
Heritage Auctions, HA.com
Who was Julian Onderdonk?
Onderdonk was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1882 and showed artistic talent at a young age, according to the Texas Historical Society. He began teaching art as a teenager and later moved to New York City to study and teach.
In 1906, Onderdonk took a seasonal job organizing art exhibitions at the Dallas State Fair, now known as the State Fair of Texas. In 1909, he moved his family back to Texas, eventually taking an interest in painting bluebonnets and other Texas landscapes.
Onderdonk painted “A Field of Bluebonnets, San Antonio,” in 1921. He died the next year, at the peak of his success.
His work is on display at several museums, including the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth and the San Antonio Museum of Art.
Former President George W. Bush had several Onderdonk works in the White House during his administration, according to the historical society.
