Activist for Mexico’s missing people found dead

Miguel Angel Jimenez led efforts to find 43 students feared dead after disappearing in 2014

Relatives gather near the casket of Miguel Angel Jimenez, leader of the community police of Guerrero State, during his wake in Xaltianguis in the state of Guerrero. Photograph: Reuters.
Relatives gather near the casket of Miguel Angel Jimenez, leader of the community police of Guerrero State, during his wake in Xaltianguis in the state of Guerrero. Photograph: Reuters.

At least fifteen people were killed during the weekend in Mexico's southwestern Guerrero state, including an activist who led efforts to find 43 students who disappeared and were presumed murdered last year.

Ten of the murders took place in the resort city of Acapulco, which is packed with tourists due to summer vacations, local police said.

Miguel Angel Jimenez, a leader of a community police organisation, was found fatally wounded inside the taxi he drove on Saturday night in the rural outskirts of Acapulco, according to local police.

Mr Jimenez led a group that searched for approximately 300 people who have disappeared in the state, helping uncover mass graves found around the city of Iguala where 43 Mexican students went missing last year.

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The government has said the students were abducted by police and handed over to drug traffickers who allegedly killed the students and burnt their bodies.

Guerrero, which has one of the highest murder rates in the nation, saw 1,514 homicides in 2014 and 943 people who have been killed so far this year through June, according to federal statistics.

New York Times