From left: Roxi Morales Velazco, Maria Esther Manzanares Three students from The College of Idaho will spend six weeks in Mexico this summer completing a Davis Project for Peace making it the 17th straight year that the College has had a proposal selected for funding by the Katherine Davis Foundation and sophomore Maria Esther Manzanares will travel to Tantoyuca a municipality located about five hours northeast of Mexico City "Colaborando con Parteras: The Importance of Midwives and Recording of Indigenous Knowledge." Morales Velazco (Venezuela) and Manzanares (Nicaragua) are also international students at the College The Davis Foundation funds each of the chosen projects with a $10,000 grant and the students have six weeks to complete its proposal “Fernando really wanted to do a project but wasn’t really sure what he wanted the project to be about,” said Morales Velazco “Maria read an article about midwifery and brought it up Midwives provide care and support for women and their families during pregnancy during labor and immediately following the birth Some consider it an alternative form of medicine versus traditional hospital care but this project plans to highlight medicine outside of traditional systems in large part because of the number of pregnancies that take place in areas that can’t access traditional systems “Midwives have a support community for pregnant women,” said Manzanares who is double-majoring in psychology and art “I love the idea that it’s not just about going to the hospital to give birth It’s also about psychology and emotional support.” Barrios says the group will be interviewing and consulting with many people in the Tantoyuca region to create materials that can be distributed within smaller rural communities to demonstrate the importance of midwives This is something that has been outside my environment when I was growing up so I’ve never had a chance to dive into it as much in a practical sense,” said Barrios who will graduate later this month with degrees in international political economy and theater we read about a lot of things that are happening but there is something about learning by experience that is so crucial.” One of the big draws to this particular project for the three students was the ability to immerse themselves in the local community through collaboration and education “People think about it as alternative medicine,” Morales Velazco said but it really is an asset to these communities.” Recent Davis Projects for Peace and their location of completion: Eswatini - The Sibane Project: Lighting the Way to a Better Future Rwanda - United Against Unplanned Pregnancy and STDs Burundi - Empowering Girls’ Education through Sanitation Palestine - Access to Water: A Matter of Health India - Encouraging Girls to Attend School Afghanistan - Promoting Education & Saving Lives/Hand-Pump Wells 2013 Project: Minh “Mark” Bui/Rahul Sharma India - Bringing Smiles Where They Never Were 2012 Project: Mauricio Santiago & Luis Reyes 2010 Project: Keats Conley & Casey Mattoon 2008 Project: Jacob Fulcher & Samatha Fundingsland Election Watch This is the second report in ACLED’s Mexico Special Election Series focusing on the upcoming national and local elections on 2 June in the central Mexican states of Mexico It dissects hybrid conflict dynamics in which organized crime interests and territorial disputes intersect with and Leer en español reports of violent incidents targeting political figures have frequently made their way into the news in the states of Mexico several armed men on motorcycles killed the mayoral candidate of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party running in Acatzingo municipality in Puebla adding yet another victim to the list of candidates and election officers who have been the targets of violence in recent months These recent incidents are part of a repeated pattern of violence and Veracruz feature among the eight most affected by violence targeting political figures since 2018 is important but less explosive than in others and Mexico are the states with the seventh- and 11th-highest number of political violence events likely involving criminal groups (see maps below) This report analyzes the drivers of the targeting of political figures in the states of Puebla It sheds light on hybrid violence taking place around elections which makes up a significant share of violence in those states The finding suggests that violence is more likely to be influenced by local power dynamics that are not always directly related to criminal groups such as competition between candidates and the interference of interest groups and other power brokers the penetration of organized crime at all institutional levels is also likely responsible for most of the other direct forms of violence It has concentrated in hotspots of gang violence with groups fighting for control of key infrastructure such as oil pipelines and trafficking routes both during and outside electoral processes where armed men recently shot and injured the state attorney (see map below) the persistently violent competition between organized crime groups for the control of illicit businesses and the decisiveness of these elections for the consolidation of MORENA’s political primacy are likely to spur violence targeting political figures in these states in the upcoming elections las noticias sobre incidentes violentos contra figuras políticas han aparecido con frecuencia en los medios de comunicación de los estados de México varios hombres armados a bordo de motocicletas asesinaron al candidato a la alcaldía de Acatzingo que se postulaba para el partido Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional (MORENA) una víctima más se suma a la lista de candidatos familiares de políticos y autoridades electorales que han sido objetivo de la violencia en los últimos meses Estos incidentes recientes forman parte de un patrón de violencia reiterado Puebla y Veracruz figuran entre los ocho más afectados por la violencia contra figuras políticas desde el 2018 es importante pero menos exacerbada que en otros octavo y undécimo mayor número de eventos de violencia política en los que probablemente han estado implicados grupos criminales (véanse los mapas a continuación) Este informe analiza las causas de los crímenes contra figuras políticas en los estados de Puebla El informe revela la violencia híbrida que tiene lugar en torno a las elecciones la cual constituye una parte significativa de la violencia en esos estados Los hallazgos sugieren que es más probable que la violencia dependa de dinámicas de poder locales que no siempre están directamente relacionadas con grupos criminales como las rivalidades entre candidatos y la interferencia de grupos de interés y otros agentes de poder es probable que la infiltración del crimen organizado en todos los niveles institucionales también sea responsable de la mayoría de otras formas de violencia directa Éstas se han concentrado en zonas medulares  de crimen organizado donde varios grupos se disputan el control de infraestructuras clave como oleoductos y rutas de tráfico tanto durante los procesos electorales como más allá de ellos donde hombres armados recientemente dispararon e hirieron al fiscal del estado (ver mapa abajo) incluso después de abandonar sus cargos: ACLED registra al menos 90 ataques contra exfuncionarios gubernamentales en el mismo periodo de tiempo la persistente y violenta competencia entre los grupos del crimen organizado por el control de los negocios ilícitos y el carácter decisivo de estas elecciones para la consolidación de la primacía política de MORENA son factores que probablemente provoquen un aumento en la violencia contra figuras políticas de estos estados en las próximas elecciones Este informe fue elaborado en inglés y fue posteriormente traducido al español los usuarios deben remitirse al informe en inglés This report was produced in English and subsequently translated into Spanish Users should refer to the English report in case of any discrepancies Tiziano Breda is a Latin America & the Caribbean Senior Analyst at ACLED and has been with the organization since January 2024 he contributes to the analysis of conflict and political violence patterns in Latin America he spent over seven years carrying out research on Latin American politics and security for the International Crisis Group and IAI five of which living in Colombia and Guatemala Tiziano holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Padua and a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Bolonia enriched by conflict resolution studies at the Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia Regions: Latin America and the Caribbean