MEXICO CITY (AP) — Land activist and indigenous leader Santos de la Cruz Carrillo was found Sunday with his wife and two children after they disappeared two days ago in a region of northern Mexico plagued by criminal groups, a prosecutor said. office reported. In a statement, the Attorney General for the northern state of Nayarit said that after intelligence work by the Criminal Investigation Agency, in coordination with the Secretary for Citizen Security and Protection, de la Cruz Carrillo and his family were found in good health, but he did not provide details of his whereabouts and whether there were any detainees in the operation. De la Cruz Carrillo, a lawyer who represents the agrarian community of Bancos de Calitique in the northern state of Durango, disappeared on March 3, along with his wife and two young children, while traveling in a van on a highway in Nayarit. The National Institute of Indigenous Peoples and the National Indigenous Congress of Mexico issued separate statements on Saturday demanding that Mexican authorities present the leader of the Wirikuta indigenous community, who lives mainly in Nayarit. The Wirikuta community of Bancos de Calitique on Saturday announced the closure of the Ruiz-Zacatecas highway and some educational institutions in Durango to protest the activist’s disappearance, which came days after an agrarian court in Durango ruled recognized the Aboriginal group’s ownership of the land they had disputed for 55 years. Mexico has become in recent years one of the most dangerous countries in the region for human rights activists and land defenders. During 2021 in Mexico, 54 environmental and land activists were murdered, according to the annual report of the non-governmental organization Global Witness.
