The Mexico election season is now in full gear as what is now considered the country's biggest election yet has entered the campaign period. This is evident as candidates recently signed a commitment to peace with the Roman Catholic Church.

The signing was held during a meeting by the Episcopal Conference of Mexico where leaders of the Catholic Church proposed strategies to reduce the violence in the country. However, they also criticized some of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's policies, leading his party's presidential candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, to react.

"I do not share the pessimistic evaluation of the current moment," said Sheinbaum, who is currently leading in the polls. She added that "not all Mexicans feel fear, distrust or uncertainty, as the Catholic Church was pointing out in the document that they shared with the three leading candidates.

Sheinbaum then claimed that homicides dropped during the AMLO presidency. However, the Associated Press pointed out that large swaths of Mexico are now controlled by drug cartels through violence and corruption, with these violent criminal organizations now extorting businesses big and small for protection payments under his watch.

In that document, Church leaders noted that the country suffers from a "deep crisis of violence and social decomposition." Their relationship with the AMLO administration has been tense ever since the murder of beloved Jesuit priests by a local drug lord.

Mexico Presidential Candidate Slams AMLO Government as She Signs Commitment to Peace

While administration candidate Claudia Sheinbaum did not agree with Church leaders on the matter of peace in Mexico, leading opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez slammed the AMLO administration, which is allied with her top rival.

The opposition candidate, who represents three different opposition parties, criticized the increased military presence all over the country. She also pointed to the fact that eight Catholic priests have been murdered while AMLO is in office.

"I will make all these proposals my own," she said as she signed the agreement. "I am convinced that the churches, and particularly the Catholic Church, to which I belong, play a fundamental role in building peace."

She proposed that to address Mexico's violence problem, the working conditions of police, prosecutors, and judges must be improved, adding, "A problem of this magnitude requires everyone's participation."

The third leading candidate in the race, Jorge álvarez Máynez, also expressed support for the Church leaders and slammed AMLO's strategy of "hugs, not bullets."

Specter of the Drug Cartels Still Looms Over the Mexico Elections

Speaking of AMLO, the Mexican president is currently under fire after US media outlets exposed that some of his closest aides were connected to the drug cartels and he knew nothing about it. While this connection has done little to diminish Sheinbaum's massive lead, the influence of the cartels still looms large over the Mexico elections.

As the Courier-Journal noted, the cartels have now infiltrated all levels of Mexico's government, making many question how much influence these criminal organizations have.

"As the economic capacity of the cartels increased, they began to infiltrate more states and began to climb the pyramid to reach positions of greater relevance," security analyst David Saucedo told the outlet. "It's very common that criminal groups want a slice of political power to remain in force, to safeguard their criminal empire."

READ MORE: Mexico Students Tried To Storm Presidential Palace, Rammed Truck Into Palace Doors in Protest

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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