The regional coordinator of the Committee for the Defence of the Rights of Indigenous People (Codedi), Abraham Hernández González, was murdered on Tuesday 17 July 2018, in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

According to reports, the activist was taken from his home at around 11.30 am and forced to board a van by a group of masked, armed individuals, dressed in military clothing. The van was guarded by motorcycles.

Abraham’s body was discovered at 7:00 pm local time on the same day by Oaxaca state authorities. According to unofficial reports, his remains show signs of torture, in addition to several bullet wounds.

According to Alejandro Cruz, a member of the Council of Autonomous Oaxacan Organizations (COOA), the judicial authorities of Oaxaca have still not issued an arrest warrant nor made any progress in the investigation because they are complicit with the assassins who carried out the murder. Cruz stated that Abraham Hernández’s murder was intended to keep the popular organizations who have resisted the dispossession of around 100 hectares in the community of Cuatunalco in a state of apprehension. This land was dispossessed by a group of businessmen for the purpose of building hotel developments. The COOA activist added that there is already a trial underway to try to recover the land in question and that residents of various communities are in the process of forming community policing “because the state has been taken over and is involved in these crimes. The police and the army are infiltrated and the political authority cannot achieve justice.”

Codedi and solidarity organizations demanded that the Government of this region solve the case, which was preceded by the murders of three other Codedi members. On February 12, 2018, the three members of Codedi were ambushed after holding a meeting with government officials to discuss issues related to the political process.

(source: TeleSur / La Jornada)