MEXICO CITY (AP) — A human rights lawyer and activist who has been missing for nearly a week in southern Mexico regularly received threats related to her work, a colleague said Thursday.
Sandra Estefana Domínguez Martínez and her husband were last seen Oct. 4, in the town of María Lombardo de Caso, in eastern Oaxaca on the border with Veracruz.
The prominent feminist activist and defender of the Mixe Indigenous peoples, native to Oaxaca’s eastern highlands, is herself of Mixe descent.
“Sandra has always handled delicate cases. If it wasn’t cases involving femicides, it was cases involving rape and so on,” said Joaquín Galvan, a Oaxacan activist and close friend of Domínguez. “She was always exposed to threats.”
He said that in these cases, government officials or members of organized crime were often involved.
In 2020, Domínguez denounced several state government officials for allegedly participating in misogynist group chats. Domínguez said the virtual chats shared images of Indigenous women and included degrading commentary. Since then, Domínguez had faced ongoing threats, Galvan said.
The Oaxaca State Prosecutor’s Office said they were conducting an investigation and searching for Domínguez and her husband Alexander Hernández Hernández. Their family members reported them missing on Oct. 8 to Oaxacan authorities.
The state Interior Secretary Jesús Romero López said in a press conference Wednesday that the couple’s car was found abandoned in Veracruz.
“Usually in this area there are several criminal groups,” he said. “We’re investigating the entire context.”
Domínguez’s disappearance has mobilized several human rights and feminist groups in Oaxaca as they continue to put pressure on authorities. Galvan believes that Domínguez’s work and persistent complaints against state officials are related to her disappearance. In Mexico, an average of 10 women or girls are killed daily.
“I think it’s important to consider every one of these situations she was exposed to,” Galvan said. “To understand what happened, what is happening, and to be able to find her.”
Galvan encouraged Domínguez to request protection under a federal protection program for human rights defenders and journalists known as “the mechanism.” He is enrolled, but he said Domínguez was not at the time of her disappearance.
“It was only when we were handling some major case that certain protective orders were issued locally, but they were temporary,” he said. “She never had a permanent protection mechanism.”
Aracely Cruz, a congresswoman from Oaxaca, also expressed her solidarity in a congressional session in the country’s capital Wednesday. “We ask the Governor of Oaxaca, Salomón Jara Cruz, to provide attention to the activist’s family,” she said.
For decades, Mexico has been plagued with forced disappearances and there are more than 115,000 missing recorded. Activists are also particularly vulnerable, with Mexico ranking one of the most dangerous countries for environmental and land defenders.
As for Galvan, he continues to share information about Domínguez’s disappearance on social media.
“We want to find her alive,” he said.
