On the evening of 8 January 2020, Mireya Hernández Guevara was driving towards her house with her husband on a motorbike, when two unknown gunmen, who had been waiting for them, intercepted them and shot her twice. She was taken to hospital but died from her injuries. Her husband was uninjured.
Mireya had been a member of the Junta de Accion Comunal (JAC) in the village Barrio 20 de Julio and had been treasurer until 2 years before , when she stepped down. She was the fourth community leader killed in the area in the first half of January 2020.
Mireya came from a humble background but because of her energy and leadership skills she was always to the fore in different struggles for a better standard of living for the people in her community.
In 1990 she had managed to get a small parcel of land as part of the redistribution of the large Satias hacienda. It was this experience that motivated her to take part in the struggle to help other people.
There has been a recent upsurge of violence in the area from criminal and paramilitary groups. The government has stepped up the police and military presence in the area in response.
