On October 14th, 2017 the body of Bernardo Ranferi Hernández Acevedo was found in the burning wreck of his car near Nejapa, Chilapa de Álvarez in Guerrero state, half a kilometer away from a military checkpoint. The political leader was killed on the Chilapa-Ahuacoutzingo highway, in the downtown area of Guerrero, a region that is particularly troubled by the struggle between criminal groups that want to control the traffic and cultivation of the poppy.

Police were notified of a car on fire on the highway and on arrival found the car on fire with the bodies of Bernardo, his wife, his mother-in-law and his driver inside. 50-year old Ranferi was a respected HRD who had survived the so called Guerra Sucia (Dirty War) of the 1970s.

He was a trenchant critic of Rubén Figueroa, former governor of Guerrero,whom he had accused of being responsible of the killing of 17 farmers in Aguas Blancas in 1995. As a result more that 35 detention orders were issued against him and in 1997 he went into exile in France for 4 years. When he returned to Mexico in 2001 he dedicated himself to organising peasant and indigenous communities to demand their rights.