Celaya’s mayor replaced most of the local police force with national guard troops after a wave of cartel violence and the assassination of a mayoral candidate.

More municipalities are leaning on the military for local policing.

Police corruption is endemic in much of Mexico. One officer in Celaya warned her sister to be wary.

CELAYA, Mexico — On a sunny spring day last year, a young attorney named Gisela Gaytán kicked off her campaign for mayor in this gritty Mexican city.

Under her blouse she wore a ballistic vest.

Celaya had become the epicenter of a bloody cartel war, with one of the highest homicide rates in the world, and a local police force that appeared powerless to stop it.

“We must recover the security that we so long for,” Gaytán, 38, wrote on social media before setting

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