By Ricardo Lezama 
Yesterday, on July 18, 2024, a Mexican Indigenous rights defender was killed alongside his wife and daughter when unknown assailants riddled their car with bullets and set it ablaze, a prosecutor’s office said Friday. Pictures on social media show the end result of decades of activism for, Lorenzo Santos Torres, 53, and his family who were traveling in a pickup truck along a highway in the southern state of Oaxaca. They were ambushed, intercepted and shot on Thursday.
The crime should not go unpunished, but the track record for the state police in Oaxaca is abysmal. Salomón Jara Cruz, the governor of Oaxaca, has been accused of colluding with criminals to maintain the local political order. Under the AMLO administration, Oaxaca alone has had 43 land rights and human rights activists killed in brutal ways.
In 2013, Santos Torres survived a different attack, but did not change his stance or political activity that pushed back on local feudal style politics.
🗳️📌ASESINAN A DEFENSOR DE DERECHOS HUMANOS Y SU FAMILIA EN OAXACA
— Juan Ortiz 🗳️👁🗨 (@Juan_OrtizMX) July 20, 2024
Lorenzo Santos Torres, defensor comunitario en Oaxaca, fue asesinado junto a su esposa e hija.
Los hechos ocurrieron el 18 de julio, siendo emboscados, ejecutados y calcinados en su vehículo en un camino entre… pic.twitter.com/h98gFrX3VX
Mercilessly, the attackers then set fire to the vehicle with the passengers inside, the state prosecutor’s office said. “We condemn the violent way in which the crime was committed,” state prosecutor Bernardo Rodriguez Alamilla told reporters, suggesting the attack could have been motivated by “revenge”.
#LoÚltimo 🔴
— María de los Ángeles (@Gelosnivon) July 20, 2024
El @FiscalOaxaca Bernardo Rodríguez, confirmó que una de las lineas de investigación que se siguen tras el asesinato de Lorenzo Santos Torres, activista de la región de la Sierra Sur es la violencia que predomina en la región. @FISCALIA_GobOax
Lee más… pic.twitter.com/M3plzVSZGU