Justice for activist tortured and murdered nine years ago in Guerrero, they demand

Nestor Jimenez

Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, May 31, 2022, p. 7

Nine years after the murder of the activist Arturo Hernández Cardona, who was tortured and disappeared along with five other people in Iguala, Guerrero, family members and social organizations endorsed their demand for justice, since in this period not even the first stage has been completed. Of the investigation.

We do not forget, we do not forgive, we do not reconcileindicated the Solidarity Network against Impunity, which underlined that Unfortunately, this has been the first case in Mexico where six social activists disappear, of which three are executed, including Arturo Hernández Cardona. Nine years after these events, we reiterate our request for truth and justice.

The group recalled that they disappeared just one day after filing a complaint against the then municipal president of Iguala, José Luis Abarca, also linked to the disappearance of the 43 normalistas from Ayotzinapa.

According to an eyewitness statement, Arturo was executed by the then municipal presidentadded the Solidarity Network at a press conference.

María Soledad Hernández Mena, daughter of the activist, stated that denouncing links between the authorities and illicit activities was what took his life.

He explained that his father’s body arrived at the forensic medical service bandaged in some parts of the body and with traces of torture. Meanwhile, the autopsy also confirmed a traumatic brain injury caused by projectiles fired from a firearm to the head. After his disappearance on May 30, 2013, his body was found on the following June 3.

After the relatives asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to bring this case, the executive secretary of the Solidarity Network, María Magdalena López Paulino, reported that as part of this process they presented a series of observations to the Mexican State over the weekend, which will have a maximum of six months to respond.

He outlined that in January the IACHR will transfer the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.