IJINHA

NEWS CENTER – With an elections boycott called in Mexico's local elections, the state has announced that they are mobilizing 40,000 soldiers.

In Mexico, state forces are out in an attempt to stop the elections boycott called by normalista students, the families of the 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa students and the educators' union CNTE. Tensions are especially high in the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero.

The groups have said that with the 43 still missing and at least 24 Guerrero mayoral candidates linked to organized crime (according to the Citizen Observatory for Public Safety for Criminal Justice), they will not vote in an election where they are not represented. The Zapatistas have also announced support for the boycott. Over the last week, the families of the 43 have intensified their organizing for the boycott. Meanwhile, striking educators with the union CNTE have burned ballots, seized state buildings and refineries and lit buildings on fire.

At least 20 people have been killed in elections violence—some through executions likely realized by gang members, others by state violence. Yesterday in the city of Tlapa in Guerrero, a gang armed with machetes took to the streets accompanied by hundreds of riot police in a hunt for members of pro-boycott Popular Guerrero Members (MPG). Professor and MPG member Juan V. Tenorio may have died after a police beating.

Tensions are reportedly especially high in the city of Tixtla, where barricades are up in the streets.

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