The aggression occurs amidst the violence crisis that Sinaloa has been experiencing since September 2024 due to the conflict between Los Chapitos and La Mayiza
Mexico City.- The Mexican searcher Alma Rosa Rojo Medina, founder of the Voces Unidas por la Vida collective, was wounded this Saturday in an armed attack in Culiacán, capital of the state of Sinaloa, while the state Prosecutor’s Office investigates whether the aggression was related to her work in the search for missing persons.
The Sinaloa State Attorney General’s Office reported in a statement that it has opened an investigation for attempted femicide and indicated that one of the lines of investigation seeks to determine if the attack is related to Rojo Medina’s activities as a “member of a collective searching for missing persons.”
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The aggression, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, occurred in the Esthela Ortiz de Toledo neighborhood, in Culiacán, when armed men fired at the vehicle in which the activist was traveling.
Another woman was also injured in the attack, who, according to local media, is believed to be her daughter.
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The Prosecutor’s Office reported that it referred the investigation to the area specializing in crimes against women based on gender, with the support of investigative police and forensic personnel.
The Ministry of Public Security of Sinaloa reported that both women were taken to a hospital and are in stable condition, but remain under guard at the location where they were treated.
Rojo Medina is the founder of Voces Unidas por la Vida and began her activism after the disappearance of her brother Miguel Ángel in 2009, since which time she has participated in searches for people and human remains in various parts of Sinaloa.
Collectives demand protection
Following the attack, the Sabuesas Guerreras collective condemned the aggression and demanded that state authorities conduct an “exhaustive, prompt, and transparent” investigation to identify both the material and intellectual authors.
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“Those of us who search for our loved ones should not have to face terror or death for carrying out a task that is the responsibility of the State,” the organization denounced.
He also demanded immediate protection measures for Rojo Medina, his family, and the members of the search collectives in the region.
The attack revives the risks faced by searchers in Sinaloa. In 2014, Sandra Luz Hernández, a member of Voces Unidas por la Vida who was searching for her missing son, was shot to death in Culiacán.
The aggression also occurs amidst the crisis of violence that Sinaloa has been experiencing since September 2024 due to the struggle between Los Chapitos and La Mayiza, factions of the Sinaloa Cartel that have been clashing following the capture in the United States of the historic drug trafficker Ismael ‘el Mayo’ Zambada.
The conflict has caused thousands of homicides and disappearances in the state, while groups of relatives continue field searches in the face of a national crisis that exceeds 130,000 missing and unaccounted-for persons.
Warrior Hounds warned that the attack against Rojo Medina also represents an aggression against those who search for missing persons and demanded that the state government guarantee security conditions to carry out that work.
“May state authorities stop being spectators and assume their responsibility to guarantee a safe environment for human rights defenders,” they emphasized.
