Her campaign rally was already heating up, with a live band belting out ranchera beats on the street, when Rosa Alma Barragán sent out a hastily made video on Facebook in hopes of drawing an even bigger crowd.
“Come and listen,” she said from the city of Moroleón, where she was running for mayor. “Come and share a moment. Together we can make things better. … I’ll wait for you here.”
It wasn’t just her admirers who took note.
An hour or so after her shout-out, gunmen in a convoy of sedans and motorcycles crashed the festivities, scattering the crowd with a spray of bullets that left four people wounded and Barragán dead on the ground.
The assassination Tuesday afternoon stunned Mexico. But it was only remarkable in its brazenness.
Election season in Mexico is a whirlwind of impassioned debates and confetti-strewn rallies — and a steady stream of intimidation, threats and deadly attacks against candidates.
