Aguas Blancas massacre

The Aguas Blancas Massacre was a massacre that took place on 28 June 1995, in the municipality of Coyuca de Benítez, Guerrero, Mexico, in which, according to the official version, 17 farmers were killed and 21 injured. Members of the Organización Campesina de la Sierra Sur (South Mountain Range Farmer Organization) were en route to Atoyac de Álvarez to attend a protest march demanding the release of Gilberto Romero Vázquez, a peasant activist arrested more than a month before (and who has never appeared since). They were also marching to demand drinking water, schools, hospitals and roads, among other things. According to survivors, they were ambushed by the motorized police and several were shot point blank. Some of the events were captured on film, by the police themselves. Weapons were subsequently placed in the dead farmers' hands^[1] and the police said they acted in self-defense.

Aguas Blancas massacre
Monument in Aguas Blancas, Guerrero.
Location	Aguas Blancas, Coyuca de Benítez, Guerrero
Coordinates	17.028486°N 100.078488°W / 17.028486; -100.078488
Date	28 June 1995
Target	Members of the Organización Campesina de la Sierra Sur
Attack type	Shooting
Deaths	17
Injured	21
Perpetrator	Mexican police

One of the results of this incident was the creation of the Popular Revolutionary Army, a leftist guerrilla organization.

Planning of the massacre

Allegedly, the Guerrero secretary of government, José Rubén Robles Catalán, and Gustavo Olea Godoy, head of the state police, were waiting in a helicopter some meters away, and took off when the first shot was fired.^[1] Governor of Guerrero Rubén Figueroa Alcocer had previously had a conversation with María de la Luz Núñez Ramos, the municipal president of Atoyac de Álvarez, saying measures had been taken so that the group would not reach Atoyac and that they would stop them by whatever means necessary. After the massacre he had another conversation with her, saying "They came for war, and war they got. Are we, or are we not the authority?".^[1] In spite of his initial defense of the police's actions, Figueroa Alcocer ended up resigning as governor of Guerrero on 12 March 1996.^[2]

See also

• Human rights in Mexico

References

1. "La matanza de Aguas Blancas". Archived from the original on 2006-11-30. Retrieved 2006-09-21.
2. "Personajes ilustres: Rubén Figueroa Alcocer" (in Spanish). Ayuntamiento de Huitzuco. Retrieved 19 August 2024.

External links

• Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, "Massacre in Mexico: Killings and Cover up in the State of Guerrero" (Dec. 1995)
• Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, "Aguas Blancas", Merits Report No. 49/97, Case 11.520 (Feb. 1998)