The bodies of three activists in the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) were found on June 3 beside a road in the southwestern state of Guerrero. One of the victims, Arturo HernĂĄndez Cardona, was the leader of the Popular Union (UP) in the city of Iguala; the other two, FĂ©lix Rafael Bandera RomĂĄn and Ăngel RomĂĄn RamĂrez, were members of the organization. The men were last seen on May 30 when they blocked a tollbooth on the Mexico City-Acapulco highway to demand that Iguala mayor JosĂ© Luis Abarca VelĂĄzquez, also a PRD member, provide fertilizers for campesinos. Media reports suggest that the killings might have been a common crime, since drug gangs are active in Guerrero. But SofĂa Lorena Mendoza MartĂnez, HernĂĄndez Cardona’s widow, insisted the motivation was political. “[W]e are never going to accept that [the victims] could be linked to organized crime,” said Mendoza MartĂnez, who is a local rural development official. Some 1,000 people attended the three activists’ funeral on June 4. (BBC News, June 3, La Jornada, Mexico, June 5)
From Weekly News Update on the Americas, June 9.
