A group of alleged hitmen killed one person. He is a native defender of the Purépecha forests in the (west) Mexican state of Michoacán, state officials reported this Wednesday. The State’s Attorney General’s Office (FGE) reported today that the victim was identified as Alfredo Cisneros Madrigal, who worked as the head of common property in the town of Purépecha, Zicuicho, Los Reyes municipality.
60-year-old local leader murdered with bullets When he arrived at his home in Zicuicho on the night of Monday, February 21. According to eyewitnesses, the authorities The attackers were several armed men who fled in a vehicle..
Residents of various communities of Meseta Purépecha, Michoacán’s main indigenous region, closed three points of the highway connecting Los Reyes to the municipality of Uruapan on this day to demand that the FGE enlighten the crime. Bringing together more than 60 Purépecha, Nahua, Otomi, and Mazahua communities, the Michoacán Supreme Indigenous Council (CSIM) reports that Cisneros Madrigal is a tireless defender of the Purépecha forests. The CSIM even stated that the indigenous leader had recently before the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) condemned the illegal felling of pine forest areas to alter land use and plant avocado trees.
The Indigenous Council also denounced that nearly 60 killings or disappearances of social activists, forest advocates, indigenous officials and environmentalists have been recorded in Michoacán over the past two decades.
So far, the State Attorney’s Office has not identified the cause of the crime or the identity of those responsible, thus keeping many lines of investigation open.