Indigenous presidential independent pre-candidate Maria de Jesus Patricio, 'Marichuy' smiles in a meeting with university students in Mexico City, Mexico February 12, 2018. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The first indigenous woman to run for the Mexican presidency was injured and at least one other person killed when a van in which she was traveling was involved in an accident in western Baja California state on Wednesday, campaign social media said.

Maria de Jesus Patricio, running as an independent candidate for president in the July election, suffered a fractured forearm in the accident, according to Carlos Godinez, a state emergency services official.

The person killed, one of 11 in the van, was not identified.

Patricio, known by the nickname Marichuy, previously served as the spokeswoman for the National Indigenous Congress, or CNI, the political arm of the Zapatista National Liberation Army.

“Our spokeswoman Marichuy and councilor Lucero Islava were injured,” the CNI said on its Facebook page without providing further details about the accident.

Independent presidential aspirants have until this weekend to gather some 866,000 voter signatures in at least 17 Mexican states to appear on the July ballot.

A traditional healer and native Nahua speaker, Patricio has not yet met the signature requirement. </s> Indigenous presidential candidate María de Jesús Patricio was among eight people injured in a motor vehicle accident yesterday that left one person dead.

Patricio, commonly known as Marichuy, was traveling with 10 campaign workers in a van on the transpeninsular highway in Mulegé, Baja California Sur, when it left the road and overturned.

The candidate suffered a fractured arm and a head injury and was flown to a hospital in La Paz for treatment.

Eloísa Vega, a state representative on the council that is coordinating Patricio’s campaign, was killed in the crash, which occurred between San Ignacio and Vizcaíno.

Patricio had met earlier in the day with professors and students at the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur and was en route to Baja California.

With just four days to go until the deadline for independent candidates to collect the requisite number of signatures from supporters, Patricio is not likely to get her name on the ballot. As of Tuesday she had collected just 241,000 of the 866,000 she needs.

But yesterday she told her audience at the university that the indigenous community would win regardless because her campaign had met its objective to raise awareness of the problems facing Mexico’s indigenous people.

An outpouring of support via Twitter yesterday evening followed Patricio’s accident. President Enrique Peña Nieto was joined by several presidential candidates in wishing her well.

Stories from our archives that you might enjoy </s> MEXICO CITY -- Mexican independent presidential candidate Maria de Jesus Patricio was injured in a road crash that also killed a person riding in her caravan and injured two others Wednesday.

The National Indigenous Council said in a brief statement that a vehicle carrying Patricio and 10 other people went off a highway in the state of Baja California Sur.

The group said a woman it did not identify was killed and council member Francisco Grado was in serious condition. Patricio and council member Lucero Islava also had injuries, the statement said, but gave no details.

The newspaper La Jornada published a photo of emergency workers assisting Patricio as she walked next to an ambulance and a picture of a white van resting on its roof in a desert countryside. The paper said Patricio's left arm was broken.

Patricio, a Nahua indigenous healer from Jalisco state known popularly as "Marichuy," has been running as an independent candidate seeking to get a place on the July 1 presidential ballot.

However, days before a deadline to gather some 866,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot, she is well short of the requirement. </s> MEXICO CITY, Feb 14 (Reuters) - A van carrying the first indigenous woman to run for the Mexican presidency was involved in a highway accident on Wednesday in western Baja California state that killed at least one person and injured the candidate, according to social media associated with her campaign.

Maria de Jesus Patricio, running as an independent candidate for president in the July election, was injured in the accident, her party said on Facebook. The individual killed, one of 11 people in the van, was not identified.

Patricio, known by the nickname Marichuy, previously served as the spokeswoman for the National Indigenous Congress, or CNI, the political arm of the Zapatista National Liberation Army.

"Our spokeswoman Marichuy and councilor Lucero Islava were injured," the CNI said on its Facebook page without providing further details about the accident.

Independent presidential aspirants have until this weekend to gather some 866,000 voter signatures in at least 17 Mexican states to appear on the July ballot.

A traditional healer and native Nahua speaker, Patricio has not yet met the signature requirement. </s> An indigenous woman who is running for president of Mexico was injured Wednesday and a member of her campaign was killed when the van transporting them ran off the road, her party said.

Maria de Jesus Patricio, who is known to supporters as "Marichuy," has been touring the country trying to collect the signatures needed to become the first indigenous woman ever to make it onto the presidential ballot in Mexico.

The accident happened in a remote region of the state of Baja California Sur, which forms the southern part of the Baja California peninsula.

"Our spokeswoman, Marichuy, and councilwoman Lucero Islava were injured," said a statement from the National Indigenous Congress, the organization backing her candidacy.

Another councilman was "very badly" injured, it said. It did not specify what kind of injuries they sustained.

A woman who worked on the campaign was killed in the accident, it said.

"I am saddened by the accident that Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez and her companions had," he wrote on Twitter.

"The navy is helping provide medical attention and ground and air transport for the injured."

Marichuy, 54, a traditional healer from the Nahuatl ethnic group, is a long shot to win the July 1 election to succeed Pena Nieto, and may not even gather the million signatures required to stand as an independent candidate.

But she has drawn widespread grassroots support in a country where never-ending corruption scandals and brutally violent crime have voters fed up with the traditional political parties. </s> MEXICO CITY, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The first indigenous woman to run for the Mexican presidency was injured and at least one other person killed when a van in which she was traveling was involved in an accident in western Baja California state on Wednesday, campaign social media said.

Maria de Jesus Patricio, running as an independent candidate for president in the July election, suffered a fractured forearm in the accident, according to Carlos Godinez, a state emergency services official.

The person killed, one of 11 in the van, was not identified.

Patricio, known by the nickname Marichuy, previously served as the spokeswoman for the National Indigenous Congress, or CNI, the political arm of the Zapatista National Liberation Army.

"Our spokeswoman Marichuy and councilor Lucero Islava were injured," the CNI said on its Facebook page without providing further details about the accident.

Independent presidential aspirants have until this weekend to gather some 866,000 voter signatures in at least 17 Mexican states to appear on the July ballot.

A traditional healer and native Nahua speaker, Patricio has not yet met the signature requirement. (Reporting by David Alire Garcia, Diego Ore and Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Paul Tait) </s> Mexican independent presidential candidate Maria de Jesus Patricio was injured in a crash that also killed a person riding in her caravan and injured two others Wednesday.

The National Indigenous Council said in a brief statement that an SUV carrying Patricio and 10 other people went off a highway in the state of Baja California Sur.

The group said a woman was killed and council member Francisco Grado was in serious condition. Patricio and council member Lucero Islava also had injuries, the statement said without giving any details.

Patricio has been running as an independent candidate seeking to get a place on the July 1 presidential ballot. However, days before a deadline to gather some 866,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot, she is well short of the requirement. </s> MEXICO CITY — Mexican independent presidential candidate Maria de Jesus Patricio has been hurt in a crash that also killed a person riding in her caravan and injured two others.

The National Indigenous Council says in a brief statement that an SUV carrying Patricio and 10 other people went off a highway Wednesday in the state of Baja California Sur.

It says a woman is dead and council member Francisco Grado is in serious condition. It adds that Patricio and council member Lucero Islava sustained unspecified injuries.

Patricio has been running as an independent candidate seeking to get a place on the July 1 presidential ballot. However, days before a deadline to gather some 866,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot, she is well short of the requirement. </s> PACHUCA, Mexico: An incoming member of Mexico's Congress was kidnapped at gunpoint on Tuesday (Aug 14), an official said, the latest violent episode surrounding the Jul 1 elections, the bloodiest in the country's history.

Azucena Rodriguez Zamora, who was elected to the lower house of Congress for the eastern state of Veracruz, was driving on a highway in the neighboring state of Hidalgo when gunmen in another car opened fire on her vehicle, said a police source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The car flipped over, injuring two people who were traveling with Rodriguez.

The gunmen then pulled her from the car and abducted her, said the source.

It is the second such kidnapping in Hidalgo in recent days.

On Aug 6, the mayor of the town of Naupan, in Puebla state, was found dead after being abducted at gunpoint on a Hidalgo highway.

At least 152 politicians were murdered in the run-up to Mexico's elections, according to the consulting firm Etellekt.

The murders - mostly of local-level politicians, the most frequent targets for Mexico's powerful drug cartels - were recorded between September, when candidate registration opened, and election day.

It is by far the most violent election on record in Mexico.

The country also registered a record number of murders across the board last year: 28,711.

And the record is on track to be broken again in 2018.

Mexico has been hit by a wave of violence since the government deployed the army to fight drug trafficking in 2006.

Since then, more than 200,000 people have been murdered. Another 30,000 are missing.
María de Jesús "Marichuy" Patricio Martínez, the National Indigenous Congress's independent pre-candidate for President of Mexico, is involved in a road accident while campaigning in Baja California Sur. Marichuy is reported as injured while a passenger of the vehicle is dead.