They demand justice for the murdered searcher.
Search groups from eight states across the country demanded justice for the searching mother María Carmela Vázquez, who was murdered Sunday night outside her home in the central area of the municipality of Abasolo, Guanajuato.
Carmela Vázquez, 46, was struggling to locate her son, Osmar Zúñiga Vázquez, 21, who disappeared on June 14, 2022.
After her death was announced, activists searching for the disappeared offered to continue the search she was unable to complete, and demanded security, peace, and justice.
“Your mommy left without seeing you for the last time. Your mommy had the great desire to give you a hug and tell you how much she loves you.
“Osmar, your mom won’t be here physically to continue with us on this journey, but thousands of families are searching for you,” the Missing Persons Collective of Pénjamo, Guanajuato, shared, accompanying the message with a photo of Osmar and a black ribbon in mourning.
María Carmela Vázquez was murdered by two armed men who knocked on her door on Sunday night, asked for her, and shot her when they saw her coming out. The killers fled.
The State Attorney General’s Office reported that it has formed a task force involving experts in scientific investigation services, investigative agents, and criminal intelligence analysts to locate those responsible for the murder and bring them before the judicial authorities.
He explained that he received a report of María del Carmen’s death from gunshot wounds on Leandro Valle Street, where criminal investigation agents and forensic experts intervened at the scene and implemented evidence-gathering protocols.
They demand investigation
In a statement, the Bajío Search Union, made up of a movement of groups of families of missing persons and supporting organizations from eight states in the western part of the country, demanded a prompt and impartial investigation from the state prosecutor’s office.
He demanded that all three levels of government offer protection measures for the family and that an emergency protection plan for searchers in Guanajuato and the region be implemented.
The organization noted that “Pénjamo, a municipality 25 kilometers from Abasolo, is believed to be the epicenter of disappearances in the area, where there are official records of 126 missing persons and more than 150 families involved; furthermore, dozens of families choose not to report the disappearances.”
He noted that groups reported receiving threats to stop them from holding a demonstration in the municipality on August 30.
He described Carmela as the second searcher murdered in this state, on the threshold of her home in Guanajuato. The first was Rosario Zavala Aguilar, murdered in León in October 2020. Other murdered searchers include Francisco Javier Barajas, in Salvatierra, in May 2021; a searcher murdered in Pénjamo (the family decided not to report it out of fear), in July 2021; and Ulises Cardona Aguilar, in León, in July 2022.
