abel morieta speak clearly are going to run bigger risks. reporter: morieta was known for challenging criminal groups and drug cartels. as a private lawyer, he was also representing the lebarons, an outspoken family with dual u.s./mexico citizenship that lost nine members when they were murdered by suspected cartel members in mexico in late 2019. tweeting shortly after morieta was killed saying in part, they have killed my defender what do we call this, the rule of law? do you believe he was killed because of his opposition to the cartels? yes. he was always exposing them. to me, he died a martyr. reporter: authorities have not identified suspects or motive in morieta s murder but the victim seemed to know he was at risk, saying this a few days before he died.
though they don t say how they tallied their numbers. but still, it admits there s a problem. translator: it s a difficult time for these campaigns, we re going to keep protecting them. reporter: though mexico has consistently failed to protect its candidates. political assassinations have been a problem for decades but this year is particularly bad. i do think that this is going to be considered one of the most violent elections in mexican history. reporter: security experts like anna maria salazar says politicians are killed for a number of reasons but it often involves organized crime. in many cases she says criminal groups want their preferred candidate in office, so they might target others they don t like. especially candidates who make crime a centerpiece of their campaigns. candidates that talk the way abel morieta speak clearly are going to run bigger risks. reporter: morieta was known for challenging criminal groups and drug cartels.
choose the lesser of two evils, and supports fujimori. there have been four presidents in peru the last five years. three of them occupied the presidency during a nine-day period last november. all of the last six presidents have been in trouble with the law, including one who took his life in 2019 as he was about to be arrested for accusations related to the old corruption scandal. this week, a revised covid-19 death toll put peru at the top of the countries with the highest death rates per capita in the world. yet campaigning didn t stop. now many wonder if political instability will be a thing of the past or the new normal. neither candidate is expected to have a majority in congress. rafael romo, cnn. the head of israeli s domestic security agency says there could be incitement of violence in the coming days. it s an unprecedented warning coming ahead of a pitched political contest for israel s
reporter: here is abel morieta, a candidate for local office, crime his number one issue. but just one day after filming this ad, he was dead. shot and killed may 13th in broad daylight on a busy street while handing out campaign flyers. state authorities say morieta was deliberately targeted but don t know by whom. suspects or not, though, it s just further proof that in mexico, politics can be deadly. from september of last year through may 25th, at least 88 politicians or candidates have been killed, according to mexican consulting firm ad elect consultorres. they re part of the 565 politicians or candidates overall that have been targeted by some sort of crime, ranging from murder to assault to threats, the firm says. the government says it believes both numbers are far lower,
2000 and is serving a 25-year sentence for human rights violations. the former congresswoman has been herself in jail three times as part of an investigation for her alleged role in a bribe scandal in peru. she denies all allegations of wrongdoing. i ve been unjustly sent to prison three times, which separated me from my daughters for 16 months, fujimori said. nearly 70% of peruvian voters who had chosen a different candidate in the first round are now scratching their heads at the choices in front of them. this is like sodom and gomorrah for me, says this voter, who criticizes the candidates for running negative campaigns instead of focusing on what they can do to improve the country. that s probably why peruvian nobel laureate, mario vargas llosa, says voters will have to