CIUDAD JUAREZ (Mexico) • A congressional candidate in Mexico launched his election campaign in a coffin on Tuesday to highlight the country's many thousands of deaths from the coronavirus pandemic and cartel-related violence.

Mr Carlos Mayorga, a Lower House candidate for the Encuentro Solidario party in the northern state of Chihuahua, said he was sending a message to politicians that people were dying "because of their indifference".

He arrived in a gold-coloured casket at a rally on a bridge between the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas. His aides were dressed in personal protective equipment and carried bouquets of flowers to draw attention to Mexico's Covid-19 death toll of more than 200,000 - one of the world's highest.

Politicians "have remained silent about the high levels of organised crime. They have remained silent about the chaotic Covid-19 situation", said Mr Mayorga, whose campaign slogan is "If I don't deliver, let them bury me alive".

More than 300,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since the government deployed the military in the war on drugs in 2006.

The campaign for the mid-term elections in June has brought a wave of political violence which has seen 16 candidates murdered.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE