A Yucatán gubernatorial candidate and supporters of presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum were injured in separate highway accidents on Wednesday morning.
Joaquín Díaz Mena, the Morena party’s candidate for governor of Yucatán, said on social media that he was involved in a car accident while traveling to Mérida on the highway after a rally on Tuesday in Chemax, a municipality that borders Quintana Roo.
In a post to X, Díaz said that some members of his team were injured, but he was fine.
However, in a subsequent voice message posted to X, the candidate revealed that he sustained “some knocks” in the accident in the municipality of Seyé and would spend “a few days” in hospital.
In another post, he said he had a “small fracture” and an injury to his eyelid as the result of a “knock to the face.”
Díaz, widely known as “Huacho,” added that he would later undergo surgery due to injuries sustained in the highway accident.
Citing preliminary reports, the El Financiero newspaper said that the driver of the vehicle the gubernatorial candidate was traveling in became distracted before the highway accident occurred.
The SUV reportedly crashed into a stationary heavy vehicle. A photo posted to social media showed that the vehicle, a Ford Explorer, sustained significant damage.
Díaz, the driver and one other person were taken to a hospital in Mérida. It was unclear what injuries the driver and the other person sustained, but they apparently weren’t life-threatening.
Díaz is aiming to become the first Morena party governor of Yucatán. A recent El Universal newspaper poll showed he trailed PAN-PRI candidate Renán Barrera by more than 12 points.
Claudia Sheinbaum supporters injured en route to CDMX campaign rally
The Veracruz Ministry of Civil Protection reported on X that 18 people were injured when a bus veered off the road and overturned on the La Tinaja-Cosoleacaque highway in the Gulf coast state.
The injured passengers were taken to local hospitals. The severity of their injuries was unclear, but according to a Morena Senate candidate in Veracruz, they are not life-threatening. Manuel Huerta Ladrón de Guevara said that the injured people were in stable condition in hospital.
Rocío Nahle, Morena’s gubernatorial candidate in Veracruz, said that the bus involved in the accident was transporting Morena members and supporters to Mexico City for Claudia Sheinbaum’s “close of campaign” event in the Zócalo, the capital’s central square.
“I’m in contact with Veracruz authorities to attend to the colleagues from [the municipality of] Oluta, who suffered a highway accident,” Nahle wrote on X.
The accident occurred in the municipality of Cosamaloapan, located in southern Veracruz on that state’s border with Oaxaca. Authorities haven’t commented publicly on the cause of the crash.
Sheinbaum, the heavy favorite to win this Sunday’s presidential election, hasn’t commented on the accident, but she did say on X that she had spoken to Díaz, the injured gubernatorial candidate.
The former Mexico City mayor’s final campaign event was scheduled to start in the Zócalo at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
With reports from El Financiero, Reforma and Animal Político
