On Friday, April 19, 2019, an armed commando group burst into a restaurant in the town of Minatitlán, Veracruz, where a birthday celebration was underway. Under the pretext of looking for a bar owner known as “La Becky” — a transsexual woman who, reputedly, had betrayed Los Zetas to offer her money-laundering services to the rival cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación — the commandos mowed down fourteen of the partygoers, including a one-year-old baby. Over the course of the following weekend, the gruesome massacre made international news while the hashtag #AMLORenuncia (“AMLO Resign”) fluttered its way across social media feeds.

Then, on May 8, gunfire erupted in the central plaza of Cuernavaca, killing two members of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) union, who had been accompanying a protest of street vendors. The attack was so brazen that it took place in broad daylight, in an area with heavy police presence only a few yards from the government palace where members of the state cabinet were meeting. A press cameraman was also wounded by the shots. In these circumstances, it would be hard to avoid the conclusion that the violence was a calculated media event.