Gloria Cañez Chávez (right) and her daughter Sali Avella Cañez, in a picture from their social networks.
The story is an old one: a conflict over land, indigenous communities being deprived of their ancestral territories, local chiefs exploiting the fields and cutting down the forests with the support of the gun law, and defenders of the indigenous peoples being murdered along the way. Gloria Cañez Chávez, a 63-year-old defender of the rights of the Rarámuris, and her daughter Sali Avella Cañez, 23, were hit by more than 50 gunshots last Saturday in the municipality of Balleza, Chihuahua, according to prosecutors in the state. Behind the murders is a dispute over logging permits for some forest areas, the district attorney for the southern zone of Chihuahua, Juan Carlos Portillo, confirmed this Wednesday to EL PAÍS.
Their bodies were only found on Sunday. The bodies of the two women turned up on a bullet-riddled street in the municipality of Yerbabuena. Forensic experts collected around him at least 51 .223 caliber shell casings – very similar to the standard ammunition used by NATO troops, which helps illustrate the type of arsenal the killers had access to – 7.62×39 – a type of rifle bullet, according to Specialist forums of Soviet origin – and 40 millimeters – for a pistol – according to the prosecutor’s office. “We are looking for the predominant criminal group in the area, but we are certain that the crime stems from a dispute over timber resources with the help of a criminal organization in the area,” says Portillo.
Cañez Chávez has worked with the Rarámuri communities living in the region for more than 30 years. His main concern was to help resolve land conflicts: to regain from indigenous communities the territory that he believed had been taken from them. He wanted the residents of the original town to be the ones who could farm the land that was historically theirs, rather than the businesses run by local businessmen and chiefs.
The prosecution contradicts this story, pointing out that the victim was not an activist but, on the contrary, had personal interests in the exploitation of the country. He had recently received permission to work on a controversial property in which third parties were also interested. According to the local press, the concession is said to have caused tensions with the ejidos of San Carlos and Guajolotes.
“She was in charge of these types of matters, but not from a defense perspective, but, I assume, legitimately, with an interest in logging through permits,” prosecutor César Jáuregui Moreno said in a news conference. During the appearance, the official also claimed that several complaints had been filed against Cañez Chávez, all related to land use rights.
The residents of the region have a different opinion than the prosecutor. There are many voices that assert that, despite personal interests – the recovery of her family’s land – Cañez Chávez has defended the rights of the Rarámuris for three decades and fought for them to be able to recover and manage their land. The newspaper El Heraldo de Chihuahua collects testimonies confirming that a sentence the woman said at local meetings was: “You also have the right to live with dignity, to buy a vehicle and to exploit the land that your parents owned and grandparents left you.” ”
When asked by EL PAÍS, District Attorney Portillo admits that Cañez Chávez took part in the meetings, but claims that the prosecution does not consider her an activist: “There are conflicting versions,” he admits.
Almost ten years ago, in 2014, Cañez Chávez’s husband, Rubén Avella Molina, was also shot. His story is darker than his wife’s. Avella Molina was accused of killing two men in 2010. He was jailed for four years. When he got out of prison, someone killed him. There was also a dispute over a property behind the crime.
The double murder of Cañez Chávez and his daughter comes the same week that a new report from Global Witness ranks Mexico as the third deadliest country for environmentalists and land protectors in 2022: 31 murders, behind only Colombia (60) and Brazil (34). ). The country has seen a decline compared to 2021, when it topped the rankings with 54 homicides, but the numbers are still bloody and the violence shows no end, as the crime in Chihuahua has shown once again. “The general situation in the country continues to be alarming for land and environmental protectors,” defends the NGO.
The double murder is no surprise in Rarámuri territory either. Just over a year ago, in June 2022, two Jesuit priests, Javier Campos Morales (78 years old) and Joaquín Mora (80), and a tour guide, Pedro Palma (60), were shot at the door of the Church of Cerocahui, a town in the heart of the Tarahumara Mountains. Javier Ávila, one of the main leaders of the Jesuit community and an active defender of human rights in the region, summarizes the situation: “Unfortunately, I didn’t know her. [a Cañéz Chávez] I didn’t even know about her work, but still it is sad to see her on the list of murders covered by the shameful impunity that characterizes these federal and state governments. I repeat: I do not condemn his work, which I do not know. I consider the unfortunate reality that we are living with murders and femicides increasing day by day as clear evidence of the failed security programs and how wrong militarization is.”
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