Oaxaca Mayor Arrested for Disappearance of British-Mexican Activist

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Lizbeth Victoria Huerta, who was seeking re-election for Morena, is accused of being related to the kidnapping of Claudia Uruchurtu Cruz, a Mexican-British activist.

The Mayor of Asuncion Nochixtlan, Oaxaca, Lizbeth Victoria Huerta, was arrested for the disappearance of Claudia Uruchurtu Cruz, a human rights activist of British-Mexican nationality that went missing on 26 March 2021.

Lizbeth Victoria Huerta

Protection measures are issued for the family of a British activist who disappeared in Oaxaca

The Oaxaca Attorney General’s Office confirmed that she was arrested along with the municipality’s security chief and two more coworkers.

Cruz was reportedly kidnapped and forced into a red truck following an anti-corruption protest in Oaxaca against Huerta. Mexican authorities were slow to probe until the United Nations (UN) and the British government opened an investigation.

Cruz’s sisters, who live in Sheffield in the UK, wrote letters to the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab asking him to work directly with the Mexican government to find her. Several politicians from Sheffield also wrote to Rabb on behalf of the family to raise awareness on the case.

Family members confirmed to investigators that Cruz actively denounced corruption in Huerta’s administration and had received threats for her work. They said that the kidnappers have not called the family for a ransom, which suggests the kidnapping was a forced disappearance. The family argues that the disappearance order was state-sanctioned.

Huerta, from the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party, wants to be re-elected as mayor in the June elections. In addition to the kidnapping probe, she is currently under investigation by the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) for the alleged misappropriation of public funds and electoral violations.

Lizbeth Victoria Huerta

Sources consulted by Borderland Beat show that Huerta used public funds to finance her campaign. In addition, she is implicated in a money laundering case involving several “ghost” or shell companies that billed invoices to the municipality.

Likewise, the lines of investigation include the accreditation credentials of the appointment, verification balances for the close of fiscal year 2019; supporting and supporting information on various checks and invoices that were issued in the name of the municipality and of the municipal President herself, Victoria Huerta.

Among the companies that allegedly issued “ghost” invoices in favor of the Nochixtlán City Council are: Comercial Operadora del Gran Mundo SA de CV; MOCE Publicidad SA DE CV; Mayoristas Torrens SA de CV; Cleaning Products “Chuy” SA DE CV; Cleaning Materials “Santa Clara SA DE CV; and CRICSA Combustibles SA DE CV

It should be noted that the municipal president of Morenista extraction, was also denounced in May of this year for allegedly using public resources of the City Council of Asunción Nochixtlán for her political propaganda, whose objective is the re-election of the position she holds, violating the Electoral Law of Oaxaca.

The complaints were presented before the Complaints and Denunciation Commission or Electoral Contentious Procedure of the State Electoral Institute and Citizen Participation of Oaxaca (IEEPCO), by Jesús Ángel Avendaño, Elizabeth Mejía López and Guadalupe Maldonado, respectively, who accused the mayor to carry out anticipated acts of campaign with money from the treasury.

The files and their accumulated against the mayor Lizbeth Victoria Huerta are the following: CQDPCE / POS / 003/2020, CQDPCE / POS / 004/2020 and CQDPCE / POS / 007/2020, which the electoral body through extraordinary session and In resolution IEEPCO-RCG-01/2020, it qualified as existing the personalized campaign made by the mayor of Asunción Nochixtlán.

Said files and the operative one were sent to the Higher Control Organization of Oaxaca (OSFEO), so that it could issue the corresponding sanctions and give a hearing to the 64th State Legislature.

Source: BorderlandbeatMilenioProcesoAristegui NoticiasEl Heraldo de MexicoExpansionDiario Marca

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