This weekend three men who were well-known LGBTQ+ rights activists were murdered in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Rubén Estrada, Roberto Vega, and Carlos Uriel López were at a local nightclub when they were approached by a group of men who demanded money from them. When the three refused, the men returned and forced them to leave the club and threw them into a van.
The bodies of the men were found hours later on the dirt road Zacapalco-Rancho Viejo with signs that they had been shot in the head. There whereabouts was reported by Lo Real de Guerrero, but be warned GRAPHIC IMAGES are found in this write-up.
Estrada, who was 35, was an educator, the main organizer for Taxco’s annual Pride march and gay pageant in the state of Guerrero. Vega and Lopez were activists and a couple.
Lol Kin Castañeda, a lesbian activist who is a member of the Mexico City Constituent Assembly tweeted to Héctor Astudillo, Governor of Guerrero:
Taxco, Guerrero assassinated my fellow activists LGBTTTI Rubén Estrada, Roberto Vega and Carlos Uriel López. My condolences to your family and friends. The loss is for a society that demands equality, freedom and end to violence. We demand Justice @HectorAstudillo
There is no indication if this was a hate crime. Orlando Pastor, coordinator of the LGBT march in Guerrero, shared sentiments of the groups slaying with Desastre MX, a Spanish media outlet:
It was believed that this was a homophobic issue, but now it is said that it was because of organized crime. There have been so many cases incidents of organized crime.
In Guerrero there is a situation: Society is very involved in organized crime and sometimes people with certain sexual orientation are murdered so we cannot say if it is a death due to homophobia or not.
Here in Guerrero there is special prosecution for homophobic crimes since 2013. But the cases open and they go unpunished, many of them to date…that is why we demand from the authorities of Guerrero that these cases be escalated. Enough uncertainty, enough murders, and not just the LGBT community, but the entire population.
h/t: Desastre MX
