Nine killed in Mexico stage collapse at campaign event
A stage collapsed at a Mexican election campaign rally on Wednesday, killing nine people and injuring dozens as high winds tore apart the large, concert-style structure, scattering politicians and attendees.
The presidential candidate Jórge Álvarez Máynez, for Movimiento Ciudadano (Citizen Movement), was celebrating his final campaign stop in the San Pedro Garza García municipality of the city of Monterrey, in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo León, when the storm hit, impacting hundreds. The governor of Nuevo León, Samuel García, said that at least nine people had died, including an 11-year-old child, and at least 120 were injured.
The accident occurred less than two weeks ahead of the largest general election that Mexico will hold on June 2. The event served as the closing campaign ceremony for Álvarez Máynez and for several local and state candidates, including Lorenia Canavati, who is running for mayor of San Pedro Garza García, a wealthy enclave near the industrial hub of Monterrey.
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Video of the accident showed the structure suddenly falling forward into the crowd, sending politicians on the stage and panicked attendees running for cover.
"I've never experienced something so sudden," Álvarez Máynez told reporters, referring to how quickly the wind picked up before the stage collapsed.
During his morning press conference, president Andrés Manuel López Obrador regretted the accident and the loss of life during the event, indicating that federal protection agencies were assisting local rescue and treatment efforts.
Both the governor and Álvarez Máynez toured clinics and medical units throughout the city together with the Secretary of Health of Nuevo León, Alma Rosa Marroquín, to provide support to the injured and their families.
“Really, these things are things that in the blink of an eye modify anything that was planned,” Álvarez Máynez said in a video published on X, emphasizing the coordinated effort from both federal and state authorities. “Right now the most important thing is to provide support to the victims, to be aware of this issue, as this is not the time to think about more political activity for this campaign."
Movimiento Ciudado announced on X that all campaign events were canceled Thursday in solidarity with those affected.
Álvarez Máynez's campaign coordinator, Laura Ballesteros, was hospitalized with a broken foot, according to the party, and Canavati wrote on social media that she was coordinating with authorities to support those impacted and their families.
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Álvarez Máynez is polling in third place in Mexico's presidential election set for June 2. He is trailing far behind ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum and second-place Xochitl Galvez, who represents a broad opposition coalition.
Galvez and Sheinbaum both offered condolences for the families of the victims in posts on social media, with Sheinbaum canceling a rally planned for Thursday evening in Monterrey.
Reuters contributed to this article.
Reach La Voz reporter Silvia Solia at silvia.solisgarza@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mexico stage collapse kills 9 people at election event
