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MEXICO CITY, Jan. 20 (AP) — Concern has grown in Mexico over the fate of two environmental and community activists who disappeared five days ago in a dangerous corner of western Mexico.
Farmers blocked roads on the border between the western Mexican states of Michoacan and Colima on Thursday to protest the disappearance of lawyer Ricardo Ragunes and teacher Antonio Odias.
The government announced it had dispatched soldiers, the National Guard and aircraft to search for the couple, whose bullet-laden vehicle was found Sunday on a road active by warring drug cartels in the area.
“Currently, land and air searches are being carried out in the area,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
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Sergio Oseranski, an activist with the Yansa Foundation, said farmers blocked roads in the area and demanded that authorities find Lagunes and Dias.
The two have been actively involved in the battle against a large iron mine in the town of Aquila. Residents have long complained that the large open pit mine pollutes and brings violence to the area, while providing little benefit to residents. Aquila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The town of L’Aquila is in an area in western Michoacan state that has long been disputed among drug cartels. The pair went missing on the border between Michoacan and neighboring Colima state on Sunday night.
DÃaz is a leader of the predominantly indigenous community in Aquila, while Lagunes has long been involved in defending the community in land and development disputes in several states.
In the past, the region’s rich iron ore deposits attracted the interest of competing drug cartels that either extorted money from the mining industry or traded directly in the ore.
“Abandonment, exclusion and inequality keep our communities impoverished,” Lagunes’ wife, MarÃa de Jesús RamÃrez Magallón, said in a statement.​​ and leave us vulnerable to violence and community decline.”
“Defenders like my husband and Professor Antonio aim to change this reality, but too often (government) agencies prevent this work rather than help it,” she wrote.
A resident of L’Aquila who fled her village last year after her husband and son were killed described Diaz as “the one who helped us”.
Authorities in both states have charged attorney Ricardo Lagunes and teacher Antonio Diaz, Michigan Gov. Alfredo Ramirez said Wednesday. ) to launch a manhunt.
“We hope to find these two people alive,” Ramirez said. “Prosecutors in both states are searching.”
The UN human rights office has called on authorities to do more to protect activists.
“The disappearance of these two (rights) defenders is a terrible and shocking event,” Guillermo Fernández-Maldonado, Mexico’s representative for the UN human rights office, said in a statement.
One of the pair was granted government protection and “that didn’t prevent him from disappearing,” he said.
Michoacan has long been the scene of bloody turf wars between the Jalisco and Viagra cartels and local gangs. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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