Guanajuato Attorney Who Was Searching for His Missing Sister Was Murdered

Latin America World

“MX” for Borderland Beat

Javier searched for his sister Lupita, who disappeared in February 2020. Both are now dead.
Javier Barajas Piña, a Guanajuato attorney and member of the State Commission for the Search for Persons, was assassinated over the weekend.
Before joining the organization, Javier eagerly searched for his sister Lupita, a teacher who disappeared in February 2020 and was found dead in a mass grave in Salvatierra last March, as reported by Borderland Beat.
Javier died from a firearm in downtown Salvatierra at around 11PM on Saturday. The State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) is heading the investigation to clarify the homicide.
The head of the State Search Commission, Héctor Díaz Ezquerra, remembered Javier was a dedicated young man.
“He came from being a victim, precisely because of his sister, and joined us in our search … he was always willing to work and support others. It is a very strong loss for all of us,” he said.
Background

Javier’s sister Lupita went missing on 29 February 2020 after she visited her parents in Salvatierra and had gone out to buy food for lunch. Lupita had been living in Irapuato for a few years with her husband and daughter. She taught at the rural primary school Guadalupe Victoria in La Valencianita community of that municipality.

Lupita had communicated by phone with her parents and her husband while she was in a city street buying cakes. But after that communication they did not have contact with her again.

At the beginning of last March, feminist groups and members of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) sent several letters to Guanajuato Prosecutor’s Office to demand that it deploy all the resources to locate Lupita.

On that occasion, the teachers expressed their fear about the conditions in which they carry out their work, mainly in the southern region of the state, where they do not have guarantees for their safety.

Almost a year after her disappearance, Lupita’s body was identified among 72 corpses on March 2021.


#border