International

Displaced by the crime in southern Mexico threaten to boycott the elections

Inhabitants displaced by organized crime in the Sierra de Guerrero, a southern state of Mexico that faces a wave of violence, protested this Thursday to demand security and warned of a boycott in Sunday’s elections.

The group of people from the municipality of Leonardo Bravo was placed with banners at the entrance to the municipal capital, Chichihualco, where they will block the interstate road, if they do not have a solution before the elections.

“We want a solution now, before Sunday, because, if not, there are no votes on Sunday,” said one of the protesters with a half-covered face.

The protesters belong to about 20 communities in the mountains, with between four and six years of having left their villages due to the threats of criminal groups.

In addition, they denounced that the criminal group of Los Tlacos looted or burned their homes, appropriated their land and stole their animals.

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The demonstrators asked for help from the federal government and the state of Guerrero to recover his life, so they requested the permanent installation of two Army operations bases in El Carrizal and Filo de Caballos, for which they demanded the intervention of the governor, Evelyn Salgado.

They also demanded a hearing with the municipal president, Saúl Villa Adame, whom they have not seen in the area for a year. They accused him of not attending to them.

Chichihualco is a constant scene of armed clashes for the control of that corridor in Mexico, where at the beginning of the month a group of self-defense from the municipality of Heliodoro Castillo arrived, linked to Los Tlacos, although after protests they left the place.

The protest reflects the exacerbation of violence in the midst of the elections in Guerrero, where this Wednesday Alfredo Cabrera, opposition candidate for the mayor of Coyuca de Benítez, was murdered in the last hours of the campaign, which aroused a condemnation of the Electoral Mission of the Organization of American States (OAS).

The standard-bearer of the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution (PRD) alliance was shot twice in the head as he came down from the temple where he had offered his closing speech.

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In addition, the demonstration takes place in the midst of a national upturn in homicides, which rose by 7.37% in April to 2,622, the deadliest month of the year, in the midst of political violence that has left dozens of political murders.

More than 98 million voters are called to renew more than 20,000 positions, including the presidency, the 128 senators and the 500 deputies.

Eight state governments and the Head of Government of Mexico City and its 16 mayor’s offices will also be renewed.

Likewise, 1,098 local councils, 1,802 municipal presidencies, 1,975 syndicates, 204 councils, 14,560 councils, 22 municipal board presidencies, 88 municipal board councils, 22 municipal board unions and 299 community presidencies.

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International

Peruvian presidential candidate Napoleón Becerra dies in campaign road accident

Presidential candidate Napoleón Becerra, representing the Partido de los Trabajadores y Emprendedores (PTE) in Peru, died in a traffic accident while traveling to a campaign event, local authorities confirmed Sunday.

Becerra, who also served as president of the centrist political party, ranked among the lowest in opinion polls in a crowded field of more than 30 candidates competing in the presidential election scheduled for April 12.

Recent surveys place Rafael López Aliaga at the top of voter preferences.

The accident occurred near the town of Ayacucho, in southern Peru, when the vehicle carrying the candidate overturned for reasons that remain under investigation.

“The candidate Becerra has died,” Balvin Huamani, mayor of the district of Pilpichaca, told RPP radio.

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According to Huamani, he personally transported the 61-year-old candidate to a local health center, where doctors confirmed his death.

The Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (JNE) expressed condolences over Becerra’s passing and wished a speedy recovery to the three people who were traveling with him and were injured in the crash.

International

Noboa intensifies anti-cartel crackdown as violence persists in Ecuador

A close ally of Washington, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has pursued a hardline security strategy against cocaine cartels for more than two years, yet homicide, disappearance and extortion rates remain high across the country.

Between Sunday night and the morning of March 31, Ecuador’s armed forces will launch a “very strong offensive” with “advisory support” from the United States, Interior Minister John Reimberg announced Tuesday.

The government has kept details of the operation confidential and has not confirmed whether U.S. troops will be deployed on Ecuadorian soil, as has occurred at times during Noboa’s administration.

As part of the security measures, residents in the coastal provinces of Guayas, Los Ríos, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, and El Oro will be subject to a nightly curfew from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. local time for the next two weeks.

“We are in a war,” Reimberg said, urging citizens to remain indoors. “Do not take risks. Stay home and allow the security forces and our allies to do the work that must be done.”

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Although Ecuador does not produce cocaine, it has become a major departure point for drugs heading to the United States. Meanwhile, the violence associated with trafficking has increasingly affected the local population.

Bordering the world’s largest cocaine producers, Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has gone from being considered a relatively peaceful country to recording one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America—52 killings per 100,000 inhabitants—according to the **Observatory of Organized Crime.

International

Peruvian presidential candidate proposes death penalty amid crime surge

Peru is facing an unprecedented surge in crime ahead of its presidential election scheduled for April 12, with violence fueled by extortion networks and a wave of contract killings linked to organized crime.

Police data show that 2,200 homicides tied to organized crime were recorded in 2025, while extortion complaints increased by 19%, underscoring the growing security crisis in the South American nation.

Amid this backdrop, presidential candidate Álvarez has proposed reinstating the death penalty if elected, arguing that extreme measures are needed to curb the violence.

To implement the proposal, Álvarez said Peru would withdraw from the American Convention on Human Rights—also known as the Pact of San José—which the country signed in 1978. The agreement prevents member states that have abolished capital punishment from reinstating it.

Currently, Peruvian law only allows the death penalty in cases of treason during wartime.

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“We have to leave the Pact of San José and apply the death penalty in Peru because those miserable criminals don’t deserve to live,” Álvarez told AFP during a campaign stop at a market in Callao, the port city neighboring Lima.

“An iron fist against those criminals,” he added, proposing to declare hitmen as military targets.

During the campaign event, Álvarez walked through stalls selling vegetables, groceries, and fish, greeting vendors while musicians played cumbia music nearby.

The 62-year-old candidate, who spent more than four decades working in television as a comedian, is a newcomer to politics and is running for president under the País para Todos party.

Polls place him fifth in voter preference with nearly 4% support in a fragmented race featuring 36 candidates.