Mexican Activist Searching for Missing People is Shot to Death

On Thursday, Angelita Leon, the president of the humanitarian organization "Union and Strength for Our Disappeared," was killed inside her beauty salon in Tecate, in Baja California.

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Social activist Jorge Ochoa called on the Attorney General's Office to carry out the necessary investigations to determine the perpetrators of the murder and prevent impunity.

The Tecate-based organization "United Family Members Searching for Our Disappeared" condemned the attack against Angelita, a young woman who championed the fight for human rights while searching for her brother Juan Vazquez, who disappeared in 2018.

"It was only a matter of time before they started killing us... We blame the authorities entirely for not being able to protect us. We are the ones doing their work, and now they will start killing us," said the Tecate families.

Baja California State Human Rights Commission (CEDHBC) stated that an attack on activists is an affront to society as a whole and demanded that the authorities clarify Leon's murder.

During a press conference, however, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) assured that Leon's murder is not related to her work in Baja California, a state where there are 2,660 "unlocated people," according to the National Commission of Search (CNB).

"We have already identified the alleged perpetrator. It is a matter we have to analyze calmly and not advance anything. So far, everything indicates that there is no relationship with what she did," he said.