zlacker

On Sunday, I was talking a Mexican friend about how politicians get killed in our countries (Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico). Just in June, presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe was shot and killed in Bogota. In the head, in front of a crowd.

I remember being grateful about how that doesn't really happen in the US (Trump being the most recent, but he survived). I guess I was wrong... and, in that case, Garcia Marquez might agree with you.

>>whymau+(OP)
The US had one killed within the last two months, with an attempt on another, and the attacker had a list of other targets.

You could be forgiven for not knowing, since the collective coverage and attention to it since has probably been less, total, than what this received in the last couple hours.

>>whymau+(OP)
A few years ago, a would-be assassin went to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's house and — when he couldn't find her — beat her husband with a hammer. Here's what Charlie Kirk had to say about that [1]:

> By the way, if some amazing patriot out there in San Francisco or the Bay Area wants to really be a midterm hero, someone should go and bail this guy out, I bet his bail’s like thirty or forty thousand bucks. Bail him out and then go ask him some questions.

[1] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/charlie-...

>>whymau+(OP)
> I remember being grateful about how that doesn't really happen in the US (Trump being the most recent, but he survived).

You are clearly not paying attention.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cvgv4y99n7rt

>>jakela+Mx
It would be therefore fitting if someone started a conspiracy theory that Charlie Kirk was shot by his gay lover.

I mean a lot of people are saying that. Big if true etc.

>>whymau+(OP)
The US is in the process of turning into a stereotypical Latin American country, caudillo and everything else. Driven by the same economic and social forces, and in some cases the same people.

>>whymau+(OP)
>I remember being grateful about how that doesn't really happen in the US (Trump being the most recent, but he survived).

Excuse me? Melissa Hortman and John Hoffman were less than 3 months ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_shootings_of_Minnesota_le...

>>motore+JJ
This is now the 5th comment saying the same thing, so I'll respond. I'm aware of these and they were terrible. In a just world, they would get as much if not more media attention.

The difference is the public nature of the execution. That is what makes it more similar to, say, Colombia or Venezuela _to me._ Within the context of 'magical realism', it is the perspective and mass dissemination of the violence that heightens that feeling.

Going back to the original topic, there is a reason that most of 100 Years of Solitude's pivotal moments happen around the staging of public executions (and not so much the off-screen violence, of which there is some but it's not focal).

>>yepitw+Cb
Also there was a string of events of a guy shooting at offices of a certain political party in Arizona not that long ago and also a candidate who lost who also tried to hire a hitman to kill the person they lost to.