The community defender and adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle Rodrigo Guadalupe Huet Gomez was murdered on 22 May 2017 in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza in Chiapas. He was killed during an armed attack against the members of the Cruztón community.

In a statement made on 1 June, members of the Cruztón community told how that day several adherents were ambushed by a heavily armed group from Nuevo Guadalupe Victoria. The group initiated a shootout that lasted four and a half hours. When the shooting subsided, Rodrigo Guadalupe got up from the place where he was hiding during the attack to see if the attackers had gone when he was shot in the left temple. An ambulance from Venustiano Carranza was called but this was stopped in Guadalupe Victoria by the Guadalupe Victoria municipal police. An ambulance from Teopisca was then called and was accompanied by a civil protection vehicle but it was stopped by several armed men. In the meantime, Rodrigo Guadalupe died.

It seems that the attack on the Cruztón community is linked to mining interests and the government which wants to exploit La Mesona mountain and its gold deposits.

Rodrigo’s murder has left his three sons and two daughters, all under 10 years old, without a father.