British–Mexican Activist Confirmed Dead by Oaxaca Authorities; Mayor Was Arrested for Her Disappearance Last Month

"Morogris" for Borderland Beat

Human rights activist Claudia Uruchurtu Cruz, 48, was last seen on 26 March 2021 in Oaxaca.

Claudia Uruchurtu Cruz, a human rights activist of British-Mexican nationality that went missing on 26 March 2021 in Oaxaca. Although the body has not been found, Oaxaca authorities confirmed that Cruz was murdered.

"She was killed. The victim of an extrajudicial execution, after being a victim of forced disappearance … we are only looking for the body,” he said.

The Attorney General added that officials were confident justice would be done. “A lot of progress has been made. We have practically identified all the intellectual and material participants in the crime, and we have detained those who are likely responsible, but it will be up to the judges to adjudicate responsibly on this issue that has hurt the community so badly,” he said.

Cruz was reportedly kidnapped and forced into a red truck following an anti-corruption protest in Oaxaca against Lizbeth Victoria Huerta, the mayor of Asuncion Nochixtlan municipality. Mexican authorities were slow to probe until the United Nations (UN) and the British government opened an investigation.

Cruz's sisters, who live in Sheffield in the UK, wrote letters to the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab asking him to work directly with the Mexican government to find her. Several politicians from Sheffield also wrote to Rabb on behalf of the family to raise awareness on the case.

Family members confirmed to investigators that Cruz actively denounced corruption in Huerta's administration and had received threats for her work. They said that the kidnappers have not called the family for a ransom, which suggests the kidnapping was a forced disappearance. The family argues that the disappearance order was state-sanctioned.

“She became a very inconvenient person for the mayor,” Cruz's family said.

Huerta, from the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party, wanted to be re-elected as mayor in the elections held earlier this month. In addition to the kidnapping-murder probe, she is currently under investigation by the Attorney General's Office (FGR) for the alleged misappropriation of public funds and electoral violations.

Sources consulted by Borderland Beat show that Huerta used public funds to finance her campaign. In addition, she is implicated in a money laundering case involving several "ghost" or shell companies that billed invoices to the municipality.

The companies under investigation are: Comercial Operadora del Gran Mundo S.A. de C.V.; MOCE Publicidad S.A. DE C.V.; Mayoristas Torrens S.A de C.V.; Productos de Limpieza “Chuy” S.A. DE C.V.; Materiales de Limpieza “Santa Clara S.A. DE C.V.; and CRICSA Combustibles S.A DE C.V.

Asunción Nochixtlán mayor Lizbeth Victoria Huerta was arrested last month after Oaxaca authorities issued an arrest warrant for her capture.

Sources: Proceso; Noticias Voz e Imagen; El Financiero; MND; Borderland Beat archives