The homicide of searcher Angelita León in Tecate, Baja California, is number 15 on the list of relatives of missing persons murdered so far in the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, ten more than the victims registered in the government of Enrique Peña Nieto.
Guanajuato, an entity governed by PAN member Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo, is the state with the highest number of murdered searchers for missing persons, according to a count by the Mexican Editorial Organization.
The master in spatial analysis and geoinformatics, with work on the geography of crime, Lina Gabriela Belaunzarán Chávez made a map with the records of the last 14 years of relatives of missing victims of homicide in the country, with information from Where the Disappeared Go.
He explained that with the information available it can be determined that “these homicides are usually direct executions since, in their search and investigation, the relatives become uncomfortable for authorities and organized crime.”
The states where the most homicides have been committed against relatives of missing persons are, in addition to Guanajuato, Sonora, Sinaloa, Jalisco, Veracruz, Tamaulipas and Baja California, entities that are characterized by having a high incidence of crime by organized crime groups.
2022 was the year with the highest number of murders of searchers with five victims, in Morelos, Puebla, Sonora and Sinaloa. The first victim that year was activist Ana Luisa Garduño Juárez, murdered in January in the municipality of Temixco, Morelos.
Ana Luisa founded the civil association Ana Karen Vive, which was named after her daughter who was allegedly murdered by her boyfriend in the Burgos neighborhood in Temixco in 2012. Through this organization Ana provided advice and support to victims of crimes such as feminicide and disappearance.
The second attack was against Aranza Ramos, an activist and member of the Madres Guerreras Unidas de Sonora collective. She was killed on July 15 in Guaymas after being forcibly taken from her house. The 28-year-old dedicated the last seven months to searching for her missing husband Bryan Omar Celaya.
On August 31, Rosario Rodríguez Barraza was leaving a temple in Elota, Sinaloa, when she was approached in a vehicle by armed men. Hours later her body was located. She began looking for her son Fernando since October 16, 2019.
The last two were that of Blanca Esmeralda Gallardo, murdered on October 4 in the Villa Frontera neighborhood in the city of Puebla. She was looking for her daughter Betzabe who disappeared in January 2021.
And that of María Carmela Vázquez, who was searching for her son Óscar who had been missing since June, was murdered in the municipality of Abasolo, Guanajuato on November 8, 2022.
In 2023, one of the two victims was Teresa Magueyal, a searcher mother from the Una Promesa por Cumplir collective who was traveling aboard a bicycle, San Miguel Octopan, Michoacán on May 2.
The second was the searcher mother Griselda Armas and her husband, who were murdered in the armed attack against the brother of the mayor of Tacámbaro, Ricardo Moriya. The woman was looking for her son Diego Yahir, 16 years old, reported missing since September 1.
That same year, searcher Catalina Vargas was also kidnapped in Guanajuato; a week later she was released by her captors on July 25.
While so far in 2024, two homicides have been committed against people searching for missing persons, the first was against the searcher Lorenza Cano Flores in Salamanca Guanajuato on January 16.
The 55-year-old woman was kidnapped and then murdered last Monday night, when armed men entered her home located in the Ampliación neighborhood, El Cerrito, where her husband and son were murdered in their attempt to prevent her from being extracted by the strength of your home.
She was a member of the Salmantinos Unidos collective Searching for Disappeared, searching for her brother José Francisco Cano Flores, missing since 2018. And the most recent was that of the searcher from Tecate, Baja California, Angelita León, committed on Thursday afternoon.