Human Rights Group Urges Probe Into Death of Activist
A Los Angeles-based human rights group has called on the Mexican government to conduct a thorough investigation into the mysterious death last year of an environmental and social activist in the southern state of Oaxaca.
The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, which dispatched a delegation to Oaxaca to review the case, cited “recurrent human rights abuses” in the region and concluded that Mexican police mishandled their inquiry into the death of Cesar Guzman Vargas in the coastal town of Putla de Guerrero. Guzman, the report noted, is one of scores of teachers who have died or “disappeared” during the past decade in Oaxaca, one of Mexico’s poorest states.
Guzman, 30, was found on a Oaxacan road last April 23, with his head crushed. According to police, Guzman was the victim of a traffic accident. Fellow activists and the dead man’s family suspect that Guzman’s murder was ordered by wealthy landowners whom he challenged.
“We call on the Mexican government to find his murderers,” said Olimpia Guzman, the dead man’s sister, a Los Angeles resident.
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