Peyton O’Laughlin
In January of 2020, the body of a well-known environmental activist, Homero Gómez, was found in a well at the Michoacán Butterfly Reserve in Michoacán, Mexico. Gómez’s body was said to have received blunt trauma to the head in the autopsy. Two weeks later, the body of a part-time reserve tourist, Raúl Hernández Romero, was found on a nearby butterfly sanctuary with “injuries possibly inflicted with a sharp object.” Neither situation has yet to be declared a case of murder by local police.
Many Reserve staff and community members believe that the deaths are the result of organized crime in the region. Gómez was very active in the region for the protection of the trees in the Butterfly reserve from the illegal loggers, who some say are in connection to the Mexican Cartels. Through his activism and his time as commissioner of the Ejido that the reserve is portioned on, Gómez advocated for ecotourism and called for many local and state intervention to protect the world-famous reserve.
The article touches on other issues such as organized crime in the Michoacán region, and the greater expanse of Mexico, corruption on the Ejido that the butterfly reserve is located, Mexican environmental activism, and the state of the global climate crisis.
Many of the articles depict Homero Gómez very positively and almost like that of a saint. He is known as a jovial and generous person that dedicated his life to protecting the butterflies, and he stood with upstanding morals against the tyrannical cartels and loggers. The Guardian article was the only article to show a darker aspect of Gómez, stating that politics on the Ejido were known to be corrupt and when he was commissioner, Gómez was not the cleanest. This claim to “shady” activity was said to possibly draw enemies, but for the most part, Gómez was considered a genuinely liked individual. The immediate connection to the cartel does not seem farfetched in all happenstance as the bodies exhibited injuries that would detail homicide and the recent developments of organized crime in Mexico branching into illegal logging as global timber prices rise. Likewise, the regional police force of Michoacán has a lackluster record for solved murder cases (3% total closed cases), which adds to the seemingly lawless and corrupt depiction of Mexico in the articles.
Ultimately, these articles declare that we consider themes similar to those of Latin America under neocolonialism. The cartels, or at least the loggers and others that show interest in the taking advantage of the resources of the reserved land, draw similarities to the foreign powers that sought to take control of the natural resources of Latin American land for profit. Importantly, the Mexican government, in this case, parallels with the Latin American governments under neocolonialism as they have proceeded to take little to no action following the astoundingly high number of deaths of Mexican environmental activists (14 in 2018, and the two deaths on the reserve that occurred two weeks apart). Many of these deaths have been claimed to have involvement with the cartels, as the activists were highly critical of efforts of organized crime to illegally control and gain monetary benefit of protected Mexican resources. To clarify, the Mexican government has taken a stance of no action, which places the Mexican activists, communities, and resources at risk, similar to that of the obedient neocolonial governments that sought to assist in the foreign economic interests rather than to the assistance of the Mexican people and their aspirations of Mexican land.
Agren, David, and Oliver Milman. “Fear in Mexico as Twin Deaths Expose Threat to Monarch Butterflies and Their Defenders.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, February 8, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/08/monarch-butterflies-under-threat-mexico-aoe
Wamsley, Laurel. “Sadness And Worry After 2 Men Connected To Butterfly Sanctuary Are Found Dead.” NPR. NPR, February 3, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/02/03/802359415/sadness-and-worry-after-2-men-connected-to-butterfly-sanctuary-are-found-dead
Gallón, Natalie. “A Second Monarch Butterfly Conservationist Has Been Found Dead in Mexico.” CNN. Cable News Network, February 4, 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/03/americas/second-butterfly-conservationist-dead-mexico-trnd/index.html
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