Patricia Rivera Reyes, indigenous rights defender in Mexico, was murdered

The city of Tijuana, in the state of Baja California, once again became the scene of violence.

Last weekend, activist and lawyer Patricia Rivera Reyes, a defender of the rights of indigenous communities in northern Mexico, was shot to death in the head, as announced by state authorities.

Rivera Reyes, 61, died Saturday night in a home of the Los Pinos delegation in Tijuana, Baja California state, the State Attorney's Office reported.

According to statements provided by a witness, Rivera Reyes was meeting other people in the middle of a holiday when three armed men, wearing dark clothes and hooded, entered the house and subdued the attendants, who were demanded to hand over their belongings.

After the activist demanded that her cell phone be returned, one of the criminals turned to her and shot her in the head, the State Prosecutor's Office said.

A man identified as José “N” was also injured by gunfire, who was shot in the head and abdomen by the attackers, and was taken to a hospital.

Members of the State Commission on Human Rights of Baja California (CEDHBC) and the National Council for the Prevention of Discrimination (Conapred) condemned the murder of Rivera Reyes and demanded that the crime be solved.

Representatives of Tijuana citizens' organizations also expressed their repudiation and outrage at the murder of the defender of indigenous rights.

According to the newspaper La Jornada de Baja California, Patricia Rivera Reyes was a graduate in tourism and a law teacher from the Autonomous University of Baja California. She specialized in individual guarantees in Madrid and joined the Advisory Council of the Baja California Human Rights Procurator's Office, as well as an advisor to the then Baja California Human Rights Procurator's Office.

In the last two decades, he has dedicated himself to the defense of communities originating in the Baja California peninsula, in particular the Kumiai and the Cucapá.

Earlier this year, the current federal government acknowledged that 97 human rights defenders and 52 journalists had been killed during the middle of Andrés Manuel López Obrador's six-year term.

The Undersecretary for Human Rights, Population and Migration, Alejandro Encinas, admitted that more than 90% of the murders of activists and journalists are not sanctioned.

So far in 2022, seven Mexican journalists have been killed, making it considered the most violent year for the press in decades.

The last journalist who was killed in Mexico was Armando Linares, a fact that occurred on March 15.

Linares López, who was director of the information portal Monitor Michoacano, was shot dead at his home, located in the municipal seat of Zitácuaro, Michoacán.

Prior to the murder of Armando Linares, Juan Carlos Muñiz Ledesma were murdered on March 4 in Zacatecas; Heber López Vasquez, killed in Oaxaca on February 10; José Luis Gamboa, (January 10 in Veracruz), Margarito Martínez (January 17) and Lourdes Maldonado (January 23), in Tijuana, Baja; and Roberto Toledo (January 31), in Zitacuaro, Michoacan.

On the day of Toledo's murder, Armando Linares reported in a video broadcast on social media that his colleague had received threats from Zitácuaro city officials for revealing acts of corruption.

With information from agencies

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