Mexico: Teacher and Community Police Leader Disappeared and Murdered

From Desinformémonos
Translated by Scott Campbell

Chilpancingo, Guerrero | According to local press reports, the body of teacher Irineo Salmerón Dircio was found the morning of November 25. The teacher and coordinator of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities (CRAC-PC) was kidnapped by an armed group on November 23.

According to state press reports, one of the two bodies found in bags near the community of Amate Amarillo in the municipality of Chilapa de Álvarez belonged to the coordinator of the CRAC-PC, who had been kidnapped by an armed group the previous Wednesday.

According to information from the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE), relatives went to the Forensic Medical Services (SEMEFO) in the state capital and identified one of the victims as Irineo Salmerón Dircio, who was the CRAC-PC’s coordinator of the San Luis Acatlán House of Justice and worked as a teacher.

Reports from the authorities indicate that Salmerón Dircio was deprived of his freedom by a group of armed subjects the morning of Wednesday, November 23 while he was on his way to work in the city of Tixtla, where he taught.

That same day, members of the CRAC community police completely blocked the Chilpancingo-Chilapa federal highway in Tixtla and at the roundabout at the General Vicente Guerrero monument, to demand the local, state and federal governments intervene in the search for and release of their coordinator.

On the morning of Friday, November 25, through an anonymous phone call to the 066 emergency number, authorities were notified about the location of two bodies in bags on the side of a dirt road connecting the communities of Tepezcoutla and Lodo Grande, near Amate Amarillo, in the municipality of Chilapa.

State police went to the area and upon arriving found the two male bodies wrapped in black bags and masking tape. Next to the bodies was a piece of white cardboard that read: “This happened to them for not aligning with the boss, and this goes for all those wavering community members, the one in charge is the one in charge. Sincerely: The Bosses.”

Experts from the FGE and Prosecutor’s Office arrived who were in charge of carrying out their respective duties and transporting the bodies.

Both bodies were taken to the SEMEFO in Chilpancingo, where minutes later one was identified by his relatives as the teacher Irineo Salmerón Dircio.

On Thursday, November 24, the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center of the Mountain issued an urgent alert about the serious risks to the life, well-being and freedom of Salmerón:

Yesterday, November 23, 2016, at 6:45am, Mr. Irineo Salmerón Dircio, a primary school teacher, inhabitant of the San Antonio neighborhood in the municipality of Tixtla, and coordinator of the Liaison Committee of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities – Community Police (CRAC-PC) in San Luis Acatlán, was deprived of his freedom in Tixtla by three armed men as he was on his way to work in San Lucas, Tixtla. At this moment, his status and whereabouts are unknown.

In the same alert, Tlachinollan gave the context and situation of extreme risk the region has faced in recent years, which have intensified in recent months, given the escalation in widespread violence:

In recent years, but above all in the past months, the municipality of Tixtla has been the scene of escalating widespread violence, characterized by the unpunished actions of armed groups allegedly linked to organized crime fighting over control of territory and trafficking routes. Last weekend, November 19 and 20, nine decapitated and dismembered bodies were found on the road connecting this municipality with Chilpancingo, Chilapa and Atliaca. However, it is also clear and very worrying that this violence has affected social organizations and educational workers in the region:

1. The 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa students, of which 14 are from Tixtla, three executed students and two others seriously wounded;
2. One year ago, on November 26, 2015, four members of the “Homeland First” Community Police were executed;
3. On Monday, July 4, 2016, Ayotzinapa teacher Gelacio Navarrete Morales was deprived of his freedom in the center of Tixtla and his body was found hours later near the dump on the Chilpancingo-Tixtla highway.
4. On October 4, Jonathan Hernández Morales, a fourth year student from the community of Los Saucitos in the municipality of Tecoanapa, and Filemón Tacuba Castro, a fourth year student from Pantla in the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres, both from the Costa Chica region of Guerrero, were executed.