Seeking Mothers of Sonora on alert after murder 4:00
(CNN Spanish) -
"They are killing us," say in a statement the members of various groups that are looking for their missing relatives in the state of Sonora, in northwestern Mexico, after the murder of Aranza Ramos, one of its members. .
Ramos, 28, died Thursday after being shot at at his home, according to a press release from the state Attorney General's Office.
The state agency reported that it is investigating this murder under the feminicide protocol, and that among the lines of investigation is that related to the activism of Aranza Ramos in the different groups in which she participated after the disappearance, in December of last year, of her husband Brayan Omar Celaya.
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"We are outraged and it hurts that those of us who are looking are at risk of being assassinated," reads the statement from the groups, who urged federal and local authorities to guarantee the safety and protection of the groups that are looking for disappeared persons, as well as the family of Aranza Ramos.
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The leader of the Collective of Mothers Seekers of Sonora, Patricia Flores, said in an interview posted on the group's Facebook page that Ramos had received threats.
He affirmed that other members of the connective who are looking for their disappeared have also been threatened.
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"Aranza was a tireless warrior who fought until the last moment, that in memory of her the searches did not stop," Flores added.
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Patricia Olamendi, an international expert on human rights and violence against women, said in an interview with CNN that the persecution against activists and defenders of these groups has grown in Mexico.
"In principle, the people, the civil society, should not carry out these search tasks, for that we have the prosecutor's offices, the police; however, this impunity, this disdain, this disregard for life, has forced the formation of collectives" he explained.
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He added that Ramos is one of the thousands and thousands of women who are looking for their relatives, "but these groups take risks in the search for clandestine graves, of people who committed the crime, but they do not have tools, but they do so because the State does nothing".
"It speaks to us of this climate of impunity, but also, it must be said, of this responsibility of the federal government and the state governments that have not called to protect human rights defenders, or activists, from total and absolute contempt for the work that takes place in a country that in real life has already become the land of drug traffickers, "he added.
The murder of Aranza Ramos in Sonora
In the joint statement, the groups in which Aranza Ramos participated detailed that the 28-year-old girl was murdered at her home in Ejido Ortiz, Guaymas municipality, after a long day of field work and tracking with other women. of the groups and members of the Local Search Commission.
"Given these unfortunate events, as groups of disappeared persons in Sonora, we see with concern that our integrity and security are at risk, and our search efforts are impaired," they say in the statement.
They affirm that "several clandestine crematoriums have been found in Ejido Ortiz" and they consider it to be a place of active extermination.
Sonora Mexico
