Mexico's cartel violence haunts civilians in the lead-up to June elections

HUITZILAC, Mexico (AP) — Tailed by trucks of heavily armed soldiers, four caskets floated on a sea of hundreds of mourners. Neighbors peered nervously from their homes as the crowd pushed past shuttered businesses, empty streets and political campaign posters plastering the small Mexican town of Huitzilac.

Days earlier, armed men in two cars sprayed a nearby shop with bullets, claiming the lives of eight men who locals say were sipping beers after a soccer match. Now, fear paints the day-to-day lives of residents who say the town is trapped unwillingly in the middle of a firefight between warring mafias.

As Mexico’s expanding slate of criminal groups see June 2 elections as an opportunity to seize power, they have picked off more than a hundred hopefuls for local office and warred for turf, terrorizing local communities like Huitzilac.

“The violence is always there, but there’s never been so many killings as there are today. One day they kill two people, and the next they kill another,” said 42-year-old mother Anahi, who withheld her full name out of fear for her safety on Tuesday. “When my phone rings, I’m terrified that it’ll be the school saying something has happened to my kids.”