Environmental Activist Found Dead in Mexico

Homero Gómez was found dead in Mexico on January 30 after being missing for 17 days. Gómez was a renowned environmental activist who worked to protect the monarch butterfly species. Having grown up admiring the butterflies with his grandparents, Gómez worked to help preserve their home while simultaneously serving as the mayor of Rosario, a small community in central Mexico. 

He owned a farm on a hilltop just above the town, which gave him the perfect location to focus on the monarch butterfly species, as it is exactly where they migrate each year to escape cold winters in the United States. It was in this spot that he was able to center his concentration and help protect the species, which subsequently even helped the local economy of the region, as it began to attract tourism. 

He was last seen on January 13, after he attended a meeting in El Soldado. When his family reported him missing, they explained he had been receiving threats from an organized gang, notoriously violent in the region in which he worked. It is speculated that Gómez was targeted because of his fight against illegal logging, one of the activities that endangered butterflies by impacting their patterns of migration, and one of the activities in which many of the local gangs partake as a driving source of their income. 

While there were no signs of violence near his last known whereabouts, and his cause of death has not yet been identified, Homero Aridjis, another environmentalist and poet who also worked as a defender of the butterfly reserve alongside Gómez, called his disappearance and death “worrisome.”

“If they can kidnap and kill the people who work for the reserves, who is going to defend the environment in Mexico?” said Aridjis. 

Not only do these recent events pose a threat to the local natural life, but they also reflect a growing problem in the country. According to Mexican officials, 61,000 individuals have been recorded as missing within the past year, one of the largest figures in all of Latin America. In addition, the majority of these cases have been associated with criminal organizations, meaning that Gómez’s unfortunate death was not an isolated incident. 

The monarch butterfly was the main subject of Homero Gomez’s activism. Source: Wikimedia Commons