Political Violence Coming Back?

Whatever else you could say about Mexico's security situation over the past few years, one thing that we could all be thankful for was the relative absence of political violence. Intimidating people who would support another candidate or killing those who would run for office against you is extremely damaging to democracy, and has a long history in Mexico, well into the modern era. (For instance, hundreds of PRD activists were killed in the years after the party was formed.)

Hopefully, that state of affairs will continue, but insofar as it suggests a rise in political violence, the severe beating of a PRD rep to the Guerrero IFE, and the murder of the Oaxaca mayor Luis Jiménez Mata Santiago, which his brother alleges was provoked by his pledge to audit the accounts of his predecessor, is worrying.