León, Guanajuato: Rosario Was A Missing Persons Seeker And Was Murdered

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat 

On August 4, journalist Analy Nuño published for the project Where The Disappeared Go, an investigation that documents that 12 people searching for missing persons have been killed in Mexico Analy lacks to document a murder that was not made public until a year after it happened, it is the murder of the missing persons searcher Rosario Zavala Aguilar, who lost her life at the hands of armed men who shot her at close range in the early morning of October 16, 2020.

Rosario was looking for her son, Yatziri Misael Cardona Zavala, who was disappeared by armed men in his own home located in León, Guanajuato on December 23, 2019. 

Yatziri was 16 years old when he was disappeared. The Prosecutor's Office activated the AMBER alert in the case almost a month later. Rosario searched tirelessly for him from the day of his disappearance, she suspected that Yatziri had been forcibly recruited by criminal groups, for this reason she was looking for him; although she was part of a Search Collective, she did not participate in the widespread searches that began institutionally in July 2020.

Rosario's family requested the accompaniment of the Platform for Peace and Justice in Guanajuato from the first moment of the murder, Yatziri's disappearance had already been documented since the beginning of 2020 when Rosario joined the Search Collectives, including knowledge of various raids on her home committed by the National Guard in July of that year carried out because of alleged anonymous complaints; it is unknown if those complaints were sown by the Attorney General's Office, whose Public Prosecutors and Agents were always more likely to investigate Rosario's criminal record than the disappearance of Yatziri. 

The complaint against the National Guard was channeled to the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) which after a year has not shown progress in its investigation.

A few days after the murder of Francisco Javier Barajas, the Platform for Peace and Justice in Guanajuato requested through the Secretary of Government a meeting with the Attorney General of the State to review the progress of the two investigation folders, both in the disappearance of Yatziri and in the murder of Rosario and this was never confirmed. 

It seems that the Secretary of Government politically protects the Prosecutor's Office from this type of case.

Already in May of this year the same head of the Human Rights Ombudsman of the State of Guanajuato (PDHEG) received Rosario's family to initiate a new complaint against the omissions of the Attorney General's Office (FGE) and so far it is unknown what the reports are that the institution has presented to the Attorney General's Office. 

It should be remembered that Rosario still promoted ministerial proceedings in life so that folders that could be related to the investigation of Yatziri's disappearance, were related to each other. That did not happen, that omission must now be investigated by the PDHEG.

Rosario Zavala's murder was not made public because the family feared for his integrity, one of Jaime Rochín's first actions as newly elected President of the State Commission for Comprehensive Care of Victims (CEAIV) was to request precautionary measures in the case; now the family has decided that Alberto Pradilla, who documented the case for more than a year, will make it public through a report, a column and a video. 

The PDHEG, the CNDH and the FGE have a pending with justice in both cases, which reflect a triple violation of human rights: the disappearance, the criminalization of indirect victims and impunity for the murder of a seeker, the first in Guanajuato. 

Already the UN and various national and international human rights organizations have expressed their concern about the safety of women search engines throughout Mexico, but especially where two people have been killed without the FGE indicating whether the murder was related to their search work.

We demand justice for Yatziri and Rosario.

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