“Lawyer and human rights defender Ricardo A. Lagunes Gasca along with the teacher Antonio Diaz from the Nahuatl community of San Miguel Aquila, disappeared on Sunday night after leaving Coahuayana, Michoacan. The truck in which they were traveling appeared with bullet holes.”
Since Sunday night, January 15th, Ricardo Lagunes and Antonio Diaz have not been heard from when they left a work meeting in Coahuayana, Michoacan. Their truck was later found with bullet holes on the highway that leads to Colima.
“His wife, friends and relatives asked the authorities to implement effective actions to guarantee the work of all the compañeros who, in the exercise of our rights, defend human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples.”
The lawyer worked for several years in Chiapas collaborating with the Fray Matias de Cordova Human Rights Center in Tapachula as well as with the Fray Bartolome de Las Casas Human Rights Center in San Cristobal.
Various organizations that work for the defense of human rights have spoken out to demand their whereabouts. “We call on the authorities to activate the search mechanisms for the prompt location of our colleague Ricardo Lagunes, human rights defense lawyer and Antonio Diaz Valencia, leader of the Nahua community of the municipality of Aquila.”
Thus, a petition has also been created on the change.org page to demand the presentation alive of Ricardo and Antonio addressed to their captors, the Michoacan and Colima Prosecutors, the National Search Commission, the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders Human Rights and Journalists and the National Human Rights Commission.
For more information in Spanish:
Plagian y desaparecen a defensor de DDHH, Ricardo Lagunes y un profesor en Michoacán, Chiapas paralelo, 17 de enero de 2023
Demandamos presentación con vida de Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca y Antonio Díaz Valencia, 17 de enero de 2023
For more information from SIPAZ:
sipazen.wordpress.com 