Oaxaca is the second state in Mexico with the highest number of cases of aggression and attacks against human rights and environmental defenders; this year alone, 53 investigation files have been opened by the Oaxaca State Attorney General’s Office (FGJO), reported Elizabeth Lara Rodríguez, president of the Oaxaca State Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office (DDHPO).
She stated that among these attacks is the case of the forced disappearance of Mixtec environmentalist Irma Galindo, who was threatened for protecting the San Esteban Atatlahuca forest reserve.
What happened to environmentalist Irma Galindo?
The state ombudsperson specified that the search for the activist, four years after her disappearance, is now in the hands of the federal government. The Mexico City Attorney General’s Office even issued a missing person report because she disappeared after attending a morning press conference with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and was last seen at the Barranca del Muerto metro station.
The case has also been taken up by the UN Committee Against Enforced Disappearances, which has demanded that the Mexican government expedite the investigation into the environmentalist’s whereabouts.
Irma Galindo also had protective measures in place from the Oaxaca Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office (DDHPO) after she denounced local political bosses in San Esteban Atatlahuca for their involvement in illegal logging and timber trafficking in the region, groups that had threatened her life.
According to the investigation, Irma Galindo Barrios also disappeared after the attacks reported against residents of the communities of Mier y Terán, Guerrero Grande, and Ndoyonoyuji on October 21, 22, and 23, 2021.
Since 2017, authorities and citizens of these Mixtec indigenous communities began to protest against the municipal authorities and agrarian representatives of San Esteban Atatlahuca for their involvement in the logging of forests belonging to their communities for the economic benefit of those who managed the Toto-i sawmill operating in the area.
It should be noted that on November 10, 2019, unknown groups burned down the house of Irma Galindo Barrios, who was not at home at the time. Due to the unrest that had been occurring in the preceding days, she was unable to return home because she had received threats.
Source: milenio
