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Additional details from Proceso weekly magazine.
By Chris Covert
A member of Javier Sicilia's Movement for Peace, Justice and Dignity was kidnapped and later tortured and found murdered Tuesday afternoon in Michoacan state, according to Mexican news accounts.
J. Trinidad de la Cruz Crisoforo, 74, was in a caravan with several others near Santa Maria Ostula in Aquila municipality when they were stopped by four armed suspects. Cruz Crisoforo and three other unidentified individuals were removed from their vehicles at gunpoint and transported away.
The kidnapping took place near Aquila on Highway 200 between Santa Maria Ostula and Pueblo Xayakalan. A total of 18 unidentified individuals were in the four vehicle caravan traveling to observe proceedings involving Michoacan state government and agrarian reform advocates.
Mexican Policia Federal troops had agreed to escort the caravan which originated in Guadalajara, Jalisco to its terminus in Aquila. Somehow, the caravan became separated from its escort for a few minutes, long enough for the encounter to take place.
The entourage had apparently just concluded a meeting with an indigent Indian group to discuss their observation mission with representatives of the Michoacan state government.
The alleged leader of the armed group which kidnapped Cruz Crisoforo was tentatively identified as Margarita Perez AKA La Usurpadora. At a Wednesday press conference in Mexico City, other elements of the entourage said their cell phones were taken from them as Cruz Crisoforo was led away.
Cruz Crisoforo was later found dead by Mexican Army units, tortured before being shot four times.. Some members of the entourage claimed they heard Cruz Crisoforo being tortured.
Pietro Ameglio, part of the entourage, accused the federal government and the state government of Michoacan of complicity in the kidnapping and murder.
According to press accounts, a total of 14 individuals have been murdered in the area, the latest being an unidentified farmer who had been beaten to death by armed individuals three weeks ago.
The news of the abduction came from a press release issued by an unidentified organization which claimed Cruz Crisoforo was kidnapped by paramilitary groups associated with the deposed landowners in the area. The farmer killed three weeks ago was also killed allegedly by the same paramilitary who kidnapped Cruz Crisoforo, according to the press release.
Early last October another member of the Mexican peace movement, Leiva Pedro Dominguez, 34, and a member of a Nahuatl defense organization was shot to death in the same municipality as Cruz Crisoforo.
The area in and around Santa Maria Ostula has long been a flashpoint of violence between Nahuatl Indians and local landowners. The dispute was over land the Nahuatl consider their tribal lands. The Nahuatl is one of several Mexican Indian tribes descended from the Aztec Indians.
About 300,000 hectares of land in nearby La Placita had been transferred to Pedro Dominguez's indigent group in June, 2009 which had been previously granted other landowners. The action apparently sparked a low level insurgency against the Nahuatl.
Pedro Dominguez's indigent group is one of the few indigent groups with the right to carry and use weapons considered to be large caliber weapons in Mexico, including AK-47 rifles.
Pedro Dominguez's death came only days before he was to appear at a meeting with Mexican president Felipe Calderon at Castillo de Chapultepec along with several other members of Sicilia's peace organization to press the president about their concerns for drug war violence.
Another member of Mexico's peace movement who did attend that meeting, Nepomuceno Moreno Nunez, 56, was shot to death in Hermosillo, Sonora late last month following a lengthy dispute with Sonoran state security agencies over the June,2011 kidnapping and murder of his son Jose Mario.
It later emerged through a press conference the following day by Sonora state Procuradoria General Justicia del Estado (PGE) or attorney general, Jose Larrinaga Talamantes, that Moreno Nunez has had a long time association with local criminal gangs including drug traffickers. He had also served prison time in Arizona for trafficking heron in 1979. He had also been involved or linked to other crimes in Sonora, but had never been convicted.
Another son, Gilberto Moreno Leon is still serving prison in Sonora state for armed robbery.
The revelations enraged Sicilia and an associate, Emilio Alvarez Icaza, for what they called "criminalizing" Moreno Nunez. Sicilia and Alvarez Icaza were to meet early this month with Sonora governor Guillermo Padres. It is unknown if the meeting ever took place.