On 9 April, 2020, Pablo Guzmán Solano and Esteban Martínez Pérez , both members of the Movimiento Unificador de Lucha Triqui (MULT) in the state of Oaxaca, were shot dead.
The two men were having lunch in a restaurant in Putla in the municipality of Constancia del Rosario, when gunmen walked in and opened fire wounding both men. They were taken immediately to hospital but died from their injuries.
MULT The Movement for Triqui Autonomy is the struggle for independence of the Triqui people, who live in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Once based in town of San Juan Copala, they are now largely a diaspora due to the ongoing conflict in the region.
In 1975, an Indigenous movement known as the club was formed with the goals of “agrarian conflict resolution, the defense of human rights, and the formation of cooperatives that would market regional products.”
MULT has called for an end to the official and media driven campaign of stigmatisation against its members which has resulted in years of violence and legal harassment.
A spokesperson for the organisation highlighted the fact that, between 2012 and the present, 30+ members of MULT have been killed and none of the cases has yet been resolved.
According to Comité Cerezo, Mexico, 14 human rights defenders were victims of extrajudicial execution in Mexico in 2020. Six of those killings took place in Oaxaca. Extrajudicial refers to killings where state agents were involved.
Sixty-five per cent of the victims were members of indigenous peoples.