Why is Mexico’s pres­i­den­tial elec­tion so vio­lent?

Mexico‘s 2024 elec­tions have emerged as the most vio­lent in its his­to­ry, spurred main­ly by vio­lence from pow­er­ful drug car­tels.
The 2024 elec­tion is set to be Mexico’s largest, with almost 100 mil­lion peo­ple eli­gi­ble to vote. Aside from the pres­i­den­cy, 20,000 posi­tions are at stake, includ­ing 128 sen­a­to­r­i­al and 500 con­gres­sion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tive seats, accord­ing to For­eign Pol­i­cy.
In addi­tion to being the biggest, this year’s elec­tion is also the most vio­lent — a think tank track­ing the vio­lence found that 34 can­di­dates have been assas­si­nat­ed in this cam­paign sea­son. The lat­est occurred on Wednes­day when the pop­u­lar may­oral can­di­date Alfre­do Cabera was shot in the head at point-blank range in front of hun­dreds of sup­port­ers.
Answer­ing a ques­tion from the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er at a For­eign Pol­i­cy live dis­cus­sion, for­mer Mex­i­can ambas­sador …