MEXICO CITY, May 30, (AP): Mexico held the last day of campaigning Wednesday before Sunday’s nationwide election, but the closing rallies were darkened by attacks on candidates and the country's persistently high homicide rate.
Opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez started her last campaign rallies early Wednesday on the outskirts of Mexico City, and she focused her ire on President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's "hugs not bullets” policy of not confronting the drug cartels.
Gálvez is facing the candidate of López Obrador's Morena party, former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum. Sheinbaum, who leads in the race, has promised to continue all of López Obrador’s policies.
"Are we going to continue with hugs, or are we going to apply the law to criminals?” Gálvez asked a cheering crowd. "Mexico wants peace, wants tranquility.”
López Obrador has withdrawn funding for police forces and directed it to the quasi-military National Guard, which critics say lacks the professional and investigative abilities needed to fight the drug gangs. Gálvez promised to return the funding to police forces and guarantee them wages of at least $1,200 per month.
Gálvez also pledged to reconcile a country that has been highly polarized by the outgoing president's rhetoric, saying "enough division, enough hatred ... we are all Mexicans.”
Sheinbaum held her final rally later Wednesday in Mexico City's vast, colonial-era central square. She delivered a strongly nationalistic speech to a large crowd.
"Mexico is respected in the world, it is a reference point,” Sheinbaum said, claiming that López Obrador's government "has returned to us the pride of being Mexicans.”
"Mexico has changed, and for the better,” she said.