On 18 June 2019, Mario Moreno López, 64, left his home at 6 am to work on his land. Other members of the 20 de Junio community who worked near Mario’s land saw him fumigating his land. At 12 pm, they returned to their homes but Mario stayed to finish his work.

At 1 pm there was a community meeting, which Mario didn’t attend, which caused concern. At 6.30 pm one of his children informed the community that Mario had not arrived home, so they decided to look for him. Six members of the community went to search for him and at 9.44 pm, they found his body on his land. He had a fatal head injury.

Mario lived with his wife and two young daughters in the 20 de Junio community, in the municipality Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas. He moved to the community in 2018 with his family and he joined the fight to defend land rights. He was a farmer and he grew corn, beans and other crops to support his family.

Fabiola Gómez, a member of the National Front for Socialism (FNLS for its Spanish acronym), said that “the motive is to stop our organization’s work, Mario denounced and demanded that all of the disappeared detainees in Mexico were to be found alive”. “He fought for land rights, for education, which is why we are holding responsible paramilitary groups like “los chemas” and “los coyotes”, who threatened to evict our members from their land on 23 May, the threats were constant and yesterday this crime was committed”, she added. She noted that they feared the threats and that the violence in the area continues.

Source: National Front for Socialism