MEXICO CITY (AP) — A human rights lawyer and activist who has been lacking for almost every week in southern Mexico frequently acquired threats associated to her work, a colleague mentioned Thursday.
Sandra Estefana Domínguez Martínez and her husband had been final seen Oct. 4, within the city of María Lombardo de Caso, in jap Oaxaca on the border with Veracruz.
The outstanding feminist activist and defender of the Mixe Indigenous peoples, native to Oaxaca’s jap highlands, is herself of Mixe descent.
“Sandra has all the time dealt with delicate circumstances. If it wasn’t circumstances involving femicides, it was circumstances involving rape and so forth,” mentioned Joaquín Galvan, a Oaxacan activist and shut pal of Domínguez. “She was all the time uncovered to threats.”
He mentioned that in these circumstances, authorities officers or members of organized crime had been typically concerned.
In 2020, Domínguez denounced a number of state authorities officers for allegedly taking part in misogynist group chats. Domínguez mentioned the digital chats shared photographs of Indigenous ladies and included degrading commentary. Since then, Domínguez had confronted ongoing threats, Galvan mentioned.
The Oaxaca State Prosecutor’s Workplace mentioned they had been conducting an investigation and trying to find Domínguez and her husband Alexander Hernández Hernández. Their relations reported them lacking on Oct. 8 to Oaxacan authorities.
The state Inside Secretary Jesús Romero López mentioned in a press convention Wednesday that the couple’s automobile was discovered deserted in Veracruz.
“Often on this space there are a number of felony teams,” he mentioned. “We’re investigating your entire context.”
Domínguez’s disappearance has mobilized a number of human rights and feminist teams in Oaxaca as they proceed to place stress on authorities. Galvan believes that Domínguez’s work and chronic complaints in opposition to state officers are associated to her disappearance. In Mexico, a mean of 10 ladies or ladies are killed each day.
“I feel it is necessary to contemplate each certainly one of these conditions she was uncovered to,” Galvan mentioned. “To know what occurred, what is occurring, and to have the ability to discover her.”
Galvan inspired Domínguez to request safety below a federal safety program for human rights defenders and journalists referred to as “the mechanism.” He’s enrolled, however he mentioned Domínguez was not on the time of her disappearance.
“It was solely once we had been dealing with some main case that sure protecting orders had been issued domestically, however they had been non permanent,” he mentioned. “She by no means had a everlasting safety mechanism.”
Aracely Cruz, a congresswoman from Oaxaca, additionally expressed her solidarity in a congressional session within the nation’s capital Wednesday. “We ask the Governor of Oaxaca, Salomón Jara Cruz, to offer consideration to the activist’s household,” she mentioned.
For many years, Mexico has been plagued with pressured disappearances and there are greater than 115,000 lacking recorded. Activists are additionally notably weak, with Mexico rating one of many most harmful international locations for environmental and land defenders.
As for Galvan, he continues to share details about Domínguez’s disappearance on social media.
“We need to discover her alive,” he mentioned.