![Dangerous masked burglar with crowbar breaking into a victim's home. [Shutterstock - r.classen]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_583824274-e1494606047385.jpg "Dangerous masked burglar with crowbar breaking into a victim's home. [Shutterstock - r.classen]")
Gunmen in Mexico reportedly broke into a home Wednesday and murdered a woman known for being an activist for parents of missing children.
Miriam Elizabeth Rodriguez Martinez died on her way to the hospital after being shot multiple times on the official Mother’s Day in Mexico, according to Reuters.
ONU-DH: indignante el asesinato de la Sra. Miriam Rodríguez en San Fernando, Tamaulipas – https://t.co/AtbV54gyo1 pic.twitter.com/YK5AUvcd5M
— ONU-DH México (@ONUDHmexico) May 11, 2017
Rodriguez originally became famous after she solved the mystery of her daughter’s death, who was kidnapped in 2014. She found her daughter’s remains in a hidden grave in town of San Fernando and was eventually able to identify the assailants as the local Zetas drug cartel, Reuters reports. Her efforts eventually led to the arrest of several gang members.
One of the members escaped from jail in March, right around the same time she started to receive nefarious threats, according to BBC. Associates of Rodriguez said she requested protection from the police but was ignored or not taken seriously. A state attorney general refutes such a claim, saying they sent police patrols to her house three times a day.
Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission said the murder is a tragedy and exemplifies an overarching problem within the country’s government, specifically its ineptitude or unwillingness to keep the public and human rights advocates safe.
Since 2006, at least 80,000 people have been killed due to organized crime related incidents, according to a 2015 Congressional Research Service report. Other estimates are even higher.
Mexican drug cartels are taking advantage of the U.S. market. There is an estimated $19 to $29 billion traveling from America to Mexico “to fuel the operations of the increasingly violent and brazen criminal enterprises involved in drug trafficking,” a Department of Homeland Security report reads.
“Mexico has become a very dangerous place for those who have the courage to devote their lives to search for missing persons,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International director for the Americas, according to Reuters, referring to the latest tragedy. “The nightmare they face not knowing the fate or whereabouts of their relatives and the dangers they face in their work, which they perform given the negligent response from the authorities, is alarming.”
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