Downloaded from YTS.MX
Good morning. Please introduce yourself.
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
Homero Gómez González,
president and commissioner of El Rosario, where the biggest sanctuary is located.
After a two-month journey, we can see them flying.
The brides of the sun.
The travelers.
A world heritage.
Souls of the dead.
Come visit! It's a wonderful world.
Look at them!
Beautiful.
The Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation
into the disappearance of activist Homero Gómez González.
He was last seen attending a meeting in the village of El Soldado.
Homero Gómez's case
is one of 800 activists who have received death threats.
His family, his village, and perhaps the butterflies,
want to know what happened to Homero Gómez.
They take part in one of the most breathtaking displays on Earth.
But their sanctuary is on the verge of disappearing.
The monarch butterfly population has decreased by 22%
compared to last year.
The pine and oyamel trees have been devastated
by the cultivation of highly profitable products, like avocados.
Michoacán has increasingly become the battleground
of a collection of criminal groups.
They branched out from international drug trafficking
to something far easier, by preying on the local economy.
1,733 environmental defenders have been killed in the last ten years.
68% of them in Latin America.
Mexico had the highest number of environmental activist murders.
THE GUARDIAN OF THE MONARCHS
My brother was one of the first professionals here in the community.
He was a good student.
Got good grades.
And the locals believed in him.
They had their hopes pinned on him.
So he started to get involved in environmental issues
and the monarch butterfly.
HOMERO'S BROTHER
EL ROSARIO CENTER
I was contacted because millions of butterflies are dying.
The male butterfly dies
when the female returns to North America to lay eggs.
They are eaten by birds, rodents,
freeze to death, or die due to physical exhaustion.
That's why we call this place a sanctuary.
He became a voice in the community.
This is where his story and career begins.
We take care of our forest.
We have more than a thousand farming plots here.
We plant trees now.
We're making this place safe forever.
But we must work to preserve our monarch butterfly,
one of Mexico's natural wonders.
Homero was full of jokes. But he was also very affectionate.
He was always hugging his kids and telling them that he loved them.
He was so happy when Homerito was born.
At the hospital, he said, "Ask me for anything."
I asked why.
He said, "Because you gave me a son."
HOMERO'S WIFE
This is how butterflies breathe.
That's why there have to be trees in order for them to live.
So this is where butterflies come to rest.
My dad was a happy man.
My earliest memories with him involve going for walks in the forest.
I played with butterflies.
HOMERO'S SON
They would fly so close to me that I wanted to touch them, but I couldn't.
He would take photos of the butterflies,
even when they were inside the trees.
There are hundreds of butterflies flying right now,
because they're forming several colonies, which I came across this morning.
Let's go see them.
So he was a leader of his community, which is an area of communally-owned land.
It's an area that's very rich in forests. There's a lot of water there.
The trees grow really quickly.
Uh, but it's also a very poor region.
And Homero became responsible
for promoting the protection of the monarch butterfly sanctuary.
A baby deer sleeping here in the monarch butterfly reserve.
It camouflages with the branch.
He's sleeping.
A baby deer.
It's deer-birthing season.
The monarch butterfly sanctuary in Michoacán
has opened their doors to the public until March 31.
The state tourism department informs that 225,000 foreigners and locals
are expected to visit the Rosario Sanctuary and the Sierra Chincua.
BUTTERFLIES 300 METERS AHEAD
They're beautiful. They're beautiful.
I'm about to cry. It's one of the most beautiful things we've ever seen.
Pictures will not do it justice. We'll try the best that we can do.
This is... This is incredibly beautiful.
Along with tourism, the butterflies actually became an important resource,
um, to support the community.
And Homero became a big part of that.
At first, he would post pictures with the butterflies on Facebook.
Eventually, he started asking me to film him.
Greetings from the...
At the beginning, he made many mistakes.
He'd say, "Cut. Let's film again."
We even created our own signs.
He would make a sign, and I'd start to film him.
Today, I'm sharing this place
with a natural wonder called the monarch butterfly,
known as the travelers, or brides of the sun.
Come visit.
We're open every day from 8:00 to 5:00 until the end of March.
He had a lot of books about them.
About their life, and journeys from Canada to Mexico.
He traveled to Canada to see them.
He learned all he could about them
and gathered lots of scientific information.
It's understandable why people feel so much passion...
SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGIST
...love and enthusiasm for this butterfly, because it achieves the impossible.
This insect manages to permeate many societies and diverse groups.
They are symbols of the impossible.
Of hopes and dreams.
There are many references to ideas of transformation, resistance,
possibility, and a brighter future.
And the idea of having more than one home.
That's what I hear from the migrant groups I work with in the United States.
Undocumented!
Unafraid!
- Undocumented! - Unafraid!
Undocumented!
There's a parallel between the experience and endurance
of this moving butterfly and humans on the move.
This butterfly is seen as a carrier of the souls of the ancestors
in Central Mexican cultures.
The butterfly brings its relatives to these Mexican festivities,
which combine ancestral and modern traditions.
The butterfly inspires us to think about a world of possibilities.
The monarch manages to achieve what no other being can.
Let's start with the egg.
The monarch lays its egg under the leaves of the milkweed plant.
This plant also migrated thousands of years ago from south to north.
It's the only host plant for this butterfly.
The caterpillar forms a chrysalis.
In this cocoon, the caterpillar will begin to grow wings.
Then, it emerges as an adult,
fully transformed into a monarch butterfly.
If this butterfly is born in Canada,
it will find a lake to benefit from the wind currents
that will help propel it to make its flight easier.
KILOMETERS
It's one of the most spectacular migrations in the world.
Tens of millions of monarch butterflies
leave the United States and southern Canada,
and travel all the way to the mountains of Michoacán.
LAKE ERIE CANADA-US BORDER
Monarch butterflies are now migrating south,
so you may be seeing more monarchs than usual filling the skies.
WEST VIRGINIA, USA
The magical migration of monarch butterflies
has taken flight on their way to their winter homes in Mexico.
Lucky for us, they're stopping here for a rest.
It'll cross what we know as the Midwest.
And you'll be seeing them flying high over the Oklahoma sky,
considered the super-highway for monarchs.
OKLAHOMA, USA
Butterflies have been spotted across central Texas.
And we're about to see even more move through our area.
CHIHUAHUAN DESERT MEXICO-USA BORDER
They may face difficulties in the desert.
It's a tough time for the butterflies because it's been a long flight.
They'll come across infrastructure, like bridges, which can be complicated.
The journey through that last stretch in Mexico is grueling,
due to the lack of water,
less plants, like milkweed, and less nectar to eat.
Arriving just as expected,
monarch butterflies fly over the oyamel forests of Michoacán.
The first swarms have arrived from southern Canada,
across the US, down to Mexico.
The butterflies arrive at the monarch butterfly reserve
on their way to the oyamel forest where their ancestors came from.
There, they will take a break.
I imagine they're tired.
They've been traveling many miles for months,
possibly with no water or food.
The butterfly will go into a dormant stage and form colonies.
They wouldn't survive alone, because they would be too cold and fragile.
We've been open since 19 November.
It's been a very successful season. We've had many visitors.
Yesterday, 1,300. The day before, 1,000.
We expect 18,000 visitors this season.
The community takes care of their forest because it's their home,
their life.
They make use of their forest, like other species do.
When these dynamics change due to external demands,
it opens up the door to other presences
that may be very harmful to the local communities,
to their forest, and to the butterflies themselves.
Michoacán has a lot of natural resources. It has all four seasons.
MICHOACÁN - EASTERN AREA
But the eastern part is rich in timber and mineral as well.
Michoacán is one of Mexico's most dangerous states,
with constant clashes between drug cartels
fueling a rising homicide rate.
In Michoacán alone, we have identified 14 criminal groups.
Those are the ones on record.
Mencho Special Forces!
The Correas.
The Pájaros de la Sierra.
The New Michoacán Family.
The Viagras.
United Cartels.
And two big macro criminality groups.
The Jalisco New Generation
and the Sinaloa Cartel, who have local allies.
We're talking about activities like arms trafficking, narco traffic.
A significant portion of their income
comes from manufacturing methamphetamines and the operation of meth labs.
Michoacán is important to these cartels
because it's part of the drug-trafficking routes to the north.
CISEN ADVISOR 2006-2012
Different groups control these routes.
It's the docking point of drug shipments coming from South America.
And these shipments must travel by land to get to the border.
Shut up!
- These assholes are here. - There they are. That's good.
They're getting in that van. Those motherfuckers.
Michoacán has become increasingly violent,
There's been a 22% increase in homicides, and it's far from ending.
The cartels who've relied on drug trafficking
have splintered and evolved into having a broader criminal portfolio,
doing things such as extortion, kidnapping, and illegal logging,
mainly for export.
The timber export industry in Mexico is worth $3.2 billion.
And it's estimated that up to 70% of all the wood harvested in Mexico
is harvested illegally.
The majority of this timber
is going to the United States.
Organized crime groups are trying to find a way
to make the most of those profits
and ensure that at least some of that ends up in their hands.
That can come through extortion
and offering protection for lumber companies.
But increasingly we see that organized crime groups
are actually participating in the logging themselves.
Homero would say that our forests were a goldmine.
LA VOZ DE MICHOACÁN REPORTER
A 100 ft. pine tree could sell for $1,000.
We've arrested people in the act of cutting down the trees
and stealing the timber.
We closed the sanctuary to demand help from the authorities.
Instead, they ignore the situation.
And we're proud to do this because our forests are preserved.
But this also forces us to speak up and demand attention from the government.
Since there's less noise at night, it's easier to hear a chainsaw
or someone chopping down a tree with an axe.
Rifles, machetes, these are the weapons we use in the forest.
Is that oyamel or what?
We know we're at risk.
Their advantage is that they know the forest very well.
Put him on the ground! Let's tie him up.
If they caught them in the act,
they would hand them over to the authorities.
They're talking to you. They're talking to you!
Lift your face, motherfuckers. Who's your boss?
The locals, with their courage and God knows what else,
confiscated the timber.
They're talking to you.
When he found all the timber on the ground, he filed a complaint.
But those men told him,
"We'll get to it when we can."
They're scrubbers. Look at the mess they left here.
How much money are we talking about?
He said at our meetings, multiple times,
"Brothers, let's keep defending our interests in our forest, our sanctuary."
"They're not gonna kill us all."
HOMERO'S FRIEND
I talked to him once and I remember something he used to say.
Organized crime's next step was to take over the natural resources.
EDITOR, EL SOL DE MORELIA
He said that organized crime will take over the water, the forest.
And they absolutely did.
I think we're experiencing it now.
Organized crime operates similarly almost everywhere.
You see a convoy of trucks with 20 or 30 armed men,
passing through with chainsaws, headed towards the forest.
One truck after another came down from the hills with the timber.
They infiltrated the nucleus.
The nucleus is an untouchable zone.
It's the home of the monarch butterfly.
Once the forest is cleared, they burn it.
That soil then erodes,
and they change its land use.
It's no longer suitable for planting pine trees.
It can be used for growing whatever you want, which is usually avocados.
And this is how organized crime groups
earn additional income,
by promoting avocado production
in areas they stole and exploited illegally.
Nowadays, many organized crime groups
own acres of avocado plantations.
And, all of a sudden, you have this multibillion-dollar marketplace
willing to consume what Mexico produces
and send back billions of dollars in revenue.
Organized crime groups are increasingly finding their way
of being a part of this international trade
between these two large economies that are Mexico and the US.
In the last decade, the demand for avocados
has led to an expansion into the natural reserve.
It's challenging to contain this shift from protected forest
to a monoculture of avocados.
Among other issues, the monoculture of avocados
requires too much water.
They begin to create agricultural plots
and steal the groundwater.
This water comes from the monarch butterfly forests
and affects both human and non-human communities, including the butterfly.
Homero was worried
because, every other day, there was another forest fire.
He said,
"The drug traffickers hit us."
They were gonna start charging us for everything,
even for our forests.
He said that, as long as he was alive,
organized crime would not penetrate the community.
Everyone knows each other.
If you live there and file a complaint,
they find out and come after you, no matter what.
They come after you or your family.
"I have a serious problem that I don't think I'll be able to solve."
Those were his words.
El Rosario will not abandon its trees.
Homero Gómez pointed out that insecurity
reduced the number of visitors to the area by 70%.
We don't allow logging. We risk our lives.
And instead of negotiating or being assisted, we've been repressed.
Homero became his own promotional agency.
He talked to local or national media
the same way he would talk to an international organization.
He knew that, through state, national and international media,
he could have a bigger impact.
MONARCH BUTTERFLY POPULATION DROPS 22%
The monarch butterfly sanctuary is being painfully threatened
by the destruction of up to 500 trees per day.
Every year, high-ranking news programs
report the arrival of the monarch butterfly.
But by doing so,
they also shed light on the deforestation happening in the reserve.
And they started coming to interview Homero.
There were threats that they were going to log illegally,
but the people did not allow it,
and subsequently, we have arrested people.
He would inform us about things,
like the increase in homicides everywhere in the region.
The kidnappings, abductions, and so on.
He would say this off camera, though, because he was careful.
The media pressure and Homero's social activism
pushed the authorities to crack down on organized crime members.
It forced them to carry out operations, conduct investigations,
and seize shipments of illegal logging.
FORESTRY OPERATION
Turn this way.
The drug cartels in the region were uncomfortable
because he was drawing attention to the reserve.
The reserve was a way to make a living for his family and his community.
But since he was the leader, he collided with the criminal groups.
In Michoacán, organized crime groups seek political power.
For some reason,
they need and want to be the political structure
that controls everything.
They want to be like Pablo Escobar.
The last governors in this state, specifically the last four,
have had a direct connection with organized crime.
We are going to address the issue of insecurity!
MICHOACÁN POLICE
We will govern Michoacán!
And we will make Michoacán one of Mexico's safest states!
Activists and politicians from Michoacán
have been making accusations against Silvano Aureoles
in local media for years.
Silvano Aureoles spent millions
in building seven bunkers during his administration.
Silvano was caught supporting the Knights Templar Cartel.
Apparently, Dulce, the boss of the Knights Templar,
gave him $2 million yesterday.
They're saying that they gave you $2 million.
I'm asking the authorities to investigate everything.
I was very determined to put a stop to these things.
I strengthened the state's judicial system.
GOVERNOR OF MICHOACÁN 2015-2021
However, at the local level,
the towns are very vulnerable.
These criminal organizations start to roam and exert pressure on all of them.
What is the business of these criminal groups?
Drug trafficking.
And illegal logging.
Illegal logging is a very big and lucrative business.
I would venture to say it's worse now than it was when it was more profitable
to exploit illegal logging for cultivating marijuana.
Homero and the people of El Rosario confronted them
in order to safeguard their community.
You can see in neighboring communities how their forests have been depleted.
But El Rosario preserved theirs.
Why?
Thanks to Homero's tenacity and courage.
They confronted each other with gunfire.
They're everywhere.
Over there is another plot. You see?
- Also here. - Can't believe it.
On the other hand, we had our disagreements.
Although I agreed with his cause,
there was resistance
because he felt that we were encroaching on his political territory.
This is a great opportunity.
We can tell our neighbor that he can plant trees
because he will receive a monthly income to sustain himself.
The governor could say whatever he liked in his press conferences,
but the truth is he didn't care about the monarch butterflies
and our forests.
Homero confirmed this many times.
He said, "Although he's my friend, he's ignoring me."
Silvano, the governor, made a commitment, but he failed.
We've never seen any of them around here.
We've risked it all. We take care to ensure that no one cuts down the trees.
It's not the same being the customer as it is being the service provider.
There's a difference in being on the side of those who protest or demand,
than being on the government's side,
where you must make decisions from an official standpoint.
They were criticizing me for not doing what was necessary to help them.
There's no money to pay the people.
The people are unable to work because there are no materials.
- They're helpless. - Sorry, but it all takes time.
It's a thousand things. There's a lot of requests.
So we went to protest against Silvano.
Don't say that. Let's look for solutions. Let's forget the past. Look.
We thought Silvano was his friend.
In the end, we realized he wasn't.
Record, record, so that...
That's when they grabbed Homero and took him to prison.
"If they don't set him free, we'll request the support of the people."
"For 250 now, another thousand will come."
Everybody over here! Over here!
Come this way!
He was released.
We left the city,
getting to El Rosario around 3:00 a.m.,
but we made it back with Homero.
In the monarch butterfly reserve, we have a powder keg
with political groups in conflict, criminal organizations vying for control,
and a rival who challenged them, who cornered them,
who made the problem visible,
and who offered an alternative political movement.
The butterflies have never arrived so late.
This is the result of climate change.
The monarch is in great danger in the north.
Careless application of pesticides
and large belts of GMO corn brings a ton of problems.
And that is called Monsanto.
HOMERO'S BROTHER
He always fought for us.
He wanted to run for office and become mayor of our town.
Fortunately, there have been changes to the government cabinet.
Although there are still people who are only there for a photo
and they will always want to be close to the governor,
and when we look for them they are no longer around,
it's good that this government is promising changes.
My brother got into politics mostly because of his work,
his love for nature and the monarch butterfly.
But the truth is my brother wasn't interested in power.
For him, it was more a social endeavor.
For friendship, and to benefit the community.
He did many things.
And the people of El Rosario knew this. That's why they loved him.
Because during his time here, great things were accomplished
that I believe will not be repeated.
When my father ran for office, he was kidnapped.
They wanted to pressure him to make it clear that he couldn't win.
They forced him to make his people vote for someone else
or they wouldn't let them vote.
They threatened him by saying that if he won the mayoral election,
they'd go after him and his entire family.
They wanted to negotiate.
They demanded him to stop the protests and to let them do their illegal logging.
They released my father at dawn. The following day was election day.
They spent all Saturday convincing people not to vote.
At that time, you would hear, "Two missing people."
Everything was closed because a murdered man was found.
This area had the highest rate of kidnappings at the time.
Local people who were abducted were found dead the next day.
In an election season, candidates would be killed.
He would spend a lot of time next to the windows.
If a car drove by, he would look out to see if they came for him.
He was very concerned.
I was kidnapped by the groups that were operating here in Michoacán.
But that didn't keep us from fighting.
JANUARY 13, 2020
He asked me to wait for him. He said he wouldn't take long.
He was going to a meeting, and after the meeting, he would drop me off at school.
He received one call after another.
I guess they were asking him if he would come.
The person calling on the phone was Elizabeth,
the municipal union leader.
He left the meeting to take his son to school.
He called me on the phone and said, "Tell Homerito I'm coming for him,
but get me a shirt because I don't have time to change."
That day was the closing ceremony of the event.
He said he was going to the races.
That there were important people there, that they were all waiting for him.
So I sent Homerito with a shirt.
We were talking about what subjects I would study next semester.
I talked about my classes. And suddenly, we stopped talking.
Then, he dropped me off for the bus.
That was the last time I saw him.
Homero went to the racetrack that day.
Community leaders invited him.
It was a social and a business gathering.
The horses are already out!
He appeared in a picture on Facebook with other people,
so I thought, "He's having a good time."
It was around 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. and I couldn't sleep.
He still wasn't home at 4:00 in the morning. I wondered, "Where is he?"
My mom called me and asked if I had heard from him
because she hadn't.
I talked to the police. There was no trace of my dad.
I was the first one to go out looking for him.
I had a bad feeling.
Um, when I arrived at the place where the event was,
the first thing I saw was his car.
But he wasn't there.
HOMERO'S SISTER
So I immediately thought that something was wrong.
I called Elizabeth, who, back then, was a trustee of Ocampo,
and she told me that my dad was with government officers.
He was with Octavio Ocampo, who was a deputy at that time,
and with Councilwoman Karina Alvarado.
She told me to talk to her.
I called her,
and she told me that when they left the fair, my dad was still there.
SNACK BAR
I was worried. I kept calling my dad's phone.
The phone kept ringing, but there was no answer.
It was January 14, around 4:00 p.m.,
when someone answered my dad's phone.
It was a man.
He said that my father had left his phone and his tablet in a taco place.
He said that he took the phone home.
My dad never forgot his phone, because it was tourist season.
I asked the man if he knew what happened.
And he said that he disappeared.
I went back home and my entire family was there.
They said no one knew anything about my father.
I said, "I'll go look for him."
We went to the Prosecutor's Office.
They suggested we wait before filing a report.
We filed the formal complaint the next day.
PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
They called it a virtual kidnapping.
They explained that this happens when you're threatened over the phone.
They take the victim to a place like a hotel or a church,
and then coerce the victim's relatives.
They said that he could be anywhere.
When they filed the report,
the authorities reacted with complete indifference,
underestimating the case.
They said, "We're looking for him. He might be around somewhere."
What we see is a lack of motivation from the authorities
because they have to coexist with criminal groups.
I gave an interview where I said harsh things.
I announced my brother's disappearance
and talked about the negligence of the Prosecutor's Office for not acting.
JANUARY 14, 2020 1 DAY AFTER HOMERO'S DISSAPPEARANCE
The article was on the front page. It was an editorial decision.
It was important.
International organizations were joining the search.
This pressured the government to start looking for Homero.
PROTECTION FOR ACTIVISTS
It was an important article.
Besides, it was January, and the butterflies were still here.
The Michoacán Prosecutor's Office issued a bulletin
for the disappearance of the activist Homero Gómez González.
The State Commission for Human Rights urged all authorities
to intensify the search for him.
After that, everything was set in motion. State officials got in touch with us.
People from NGOs, the media.
Locals and friends started to talk.
The next day at 8:00 in the morning, 300 people were gathered to look for him.
One team on that side and the other team on this side.
And we'll all gather there.
Let's hope we can achieve something.
- Have you looked here? - No.
That's the hole where we found the man that was kidnapped.
But maybe he's not here. Right?
- Perhaps. - There.
All the landowners and people from the town
volunteered to join the search.
- There's a road on that side. - Okay.
It took your breath away, just how many people were helping.
We were divided into groups.
Gómez González, the president of the board of directors of El Rosario,
where the largest monarch butterfly sanctuary is located,
was last seen on Monday evening after leaving a meeting.
He disappeared from Ocampo on January 13.
There is still no indication of his whereabouts.
We began the search from the point where he was last seen.
And we strategically expanded our search to explore other areas as well.
I received a call.
They said, "We have your husband."
Rebeca called to tell me she received a call asking for ransom.
I said, "I want to see him."
And they sent me a picture.
Homero was kneeling with men behind him dressed as soldiers
aiming weapons at his head.
They told her that Homero was fine.
That they would return him soon.
They said they took him to teach him a lesson.
They demanded a ransom and Homero would be back by noon.
Out of desperation, we felt it was a good idea to pay.
My mother went to make the deposit.
That whole time, they kept calling her, saying that they were following her,
urging her to deposit the money because they were closely watching us.
They asked her for $6,000, but she ended up paying 3,000.
The next day, they called her back.
My Uncle Amado told us to go to the district attorney's office
because they were waiting for us.
We were terrified, because they said they were following us.
The prosecutor told me, "Don't give them money."
I told him, crying,
"They're gonna kill him."
The case was moved to the specialized kidnapping unit.
HOMICIDE PROSECUTOR
We began using phone tracking techniques.
The calls Homero's wife was receiving were traced to a prison in Tamaulipas.
Two weeks have passed
since environmental activist Homero Gómez disappeared.
Unfortunately, Homero's family has fallen victim to extortion by false kidnappers.
There are no clues of his whereabouts.
That line of investigation was closed,
and it was handed over to the homicide unit, which I represent,
who continued the investigation. However, kidnapping had been ruled out.
I have faith that we will find him, but I hope we find him alive.
It's a delicate matter. Very unfortunate and painful.
No matter what the governor says,
even when he claims he would give his own life for this man to come back,
the fact is he disappeared and illegal sawmills are still operating in Michoacán.
Some people said that they knew where he was being held.
We looked there and we didn't find anything.
The police questioned those people, but they wouldn't talk.
They were afraid.
In Michoacán, state police took control of security in Ocampo and Angangueo.
Fifty-three police officers from those districts
are being investigated for the disappearance of Homero Gómez González,
activist for the monarch butterfly.
The local police
were supposed to be in charge of the event's security.
So the first people interrogated were the local policemen.
The thing is we have a long history here in Michoacán
of cases of forced disappearances committed by police units.
The Michoacán Minister of Public Security
reported that all members of the municipal police in Ocampo
have been detained for an investigation
due to their alleged ties with criminal organizations.
Most of them said they didn't cover the event.
Three or four that covered the event declared that they left early.
POLICE ARE SUBPOENAED
STILL MISSING
Usually, when criminal groups execute an event of this scale,
they do it with coordination.
They coordinate with local authorities.
Firstly, because the family will react.
Secondly, when the kidnappers take the victim,
there will be no police checkpoints.
That gives the kidnappers or murderers 30 to 45 minutes to escape
and avoid triggering security alerts.
JANUARY 29, 2020 16 DAYS SINCE HOMERO'S DISAPPEARANCE
We were summoned to the regional Prosecutor's Office.
I was returning home, and suddenly a patrol car passed by very fast.
I turned my cell phone on
and the first thing that I saw was the news
saying that a body was found close to the place where my father disappeared.
On January 29, 2020,
I received a call.
I was asked to come to El Soldado,
close to where Homero was last seen.
They said they found a body, presumably Homero's.
I went alone. I didn't want to alarm my family.
As it turned out, when I arrived,
the police and the Prosecutor's Office were already there.
They let me get close to the well.
They found a very deep hole, around 20 feet or more.
SEMEFO FORENSIC SERVICES
He was face down.
They said we had to wait for the coroner to recover the body
so I could identify it.
I felt scared, anguished, sad, angry.
So many conflicting emotions.
And that made me feel like I was floating.
I thought it might be him because of his pants.
I remembered he was wearing similar ones, so I said, "Yes, it's him."
POLICE LINE - DO NOT CROSS
They wouldn't let me near him or touch him.
They asked me to identify him, then they pulled me away.
It felt like a strong blow.
I didn't know how to react.
As I walked away, my first thought was, “How am I going to tell my family?”
When Amado called me,
I asked him, "Are you sure?"
I hugged my mom very tightly,
and said, “He's gone.”
At that moment,
she understood.
When they told me they had found him,
I hugged The Bible and said, "Thank you so much."
Because I was told that so many people are taken
and you never see them again.
Not even their bodies.
Neither dead or alive.
I thanked God because he gave me a body to bury
and a place to bring him flowers.
HOMERO'S BODY IS FOUND
I sent a reporter just for the day.
He went with another group of journalists.
He came back that same morning,
because we didn't have a way to report on the case properly.
HOMERO'S BODY IS FOUND
HOMERO GÓMEZ IS FOUND DEAD
Vans with armed men were guarding the area.
For us journalists, now more than ever, Michoacán is now a zone of silence,
because organized crime in that area
takes immediate reprisals against our colleagues.
They don't mess around.
After 16 days of looking,
Mexican authorities found the body of the environmental activist Homero Gómez.
Environmental and human rights advocates in Mexico
claim to be at a constant risk.
It wasn't only us family members who lost a loved one.
The whole world, the monarch butterflies, and the forest
lost a great protector.
Due to his activism, Homero Gómez was under death threats.
He disappeared on January 13.
One of Mexico's most iconic species, the monarch butterfly,
has just lost, perhaps, its greatest defender.
In Michoacán, an alleged drowning
was the cause of the death of the activist and protector of the monarch butterfly.
According to the Michoacán Attorney General's office,
Homero Gómez's body was found in a water well used for agriculture.
So far, the initial external examination of the body
puts the time of death at two to three weeks.
MICHOACÁN ATTORNEY GENERAL
No external injuries were found.
He had facial and nail cyanosis,
characteristics typical of drowning asphyxia.
On behalf of the Attorney General's Office...
I was upset by what the prosecutor said.
He said that it was an accidental death.
That my dad had drowned.
So...
how come we were told that my dad had blows to the head?
According to the autopsy, he suffered a trauma to the head.
We assume that the blow to the head was caused when he fell.
However, I can assure you that the cause of death was not due to the blow.
So far, we don't have enough data
that indicates that he died a violent death.
So, the most solid hypothesis you have so far
is that the body fell on January 13
and floated until January 29?
Yes.
JANUARY 13, 14, 15
JANUARY 16, 17, 18
JANUARY 19, 20, 21, 22
JANUARY 23, 24, 25, 26
JANUARY 27, 28
From a forensic perspective,
you can tell if a person was killed by trauma
or if the victim died from a fall.
By that time, the body should have shown signs of decomposition.
CORONER
So it would've had a monstrous appearance.
Bulging eyes, hair loss, skin detachment.
Practically unrecognizable.
He didn't even look wrinkled or disfigured.
His hands looked slightly wrinkled,
like when you submerge your hands in cold water.
I thought they had just recently thrown in him there
because he looked intact.
Even his clothes looked fine. They looked clean.
They didn't even look messy.
It's a very cold place, where temperatures at night
can drop below freezing, especially in the winter.
The body was starting to decompose, but due to the climate conditions,
it was preserved, and decomposition didn't occur.
The prosecution presented their version of how Homero's body was found.
The Forensic Medical Service's report on the cause of death.
The report mentioned bronchoaspiration.
The Prosecutor's Office dismissed the idea that it could've been a homicide.
Given Homero's significance,
the extensive report was frustrating.
We knew everything,
and it didn't match the prosecutor's version.
We believe it wasn't an accident.
It wasn't an accident. It was a murder.
The location where the body was found contradicts any alternative version.
They didn't look in the place where Homero was last seen.
This is the most critical point to emphasize.
How could Homero have been in that location for 16 days,
and they failed to search there?
Juan, Homero's brother and I, passed by the well where he was found...
HOMERO'S FRIEND
...and there was nothing there.
If we consider the geographical and climatic characteristics
of the site where the body was found at that time,
15 days is suspicious to find a body in that condition.
'Cause the corpse was still fresh.
It couldn't have been preserved for 15 days with those characteristics.
It's practically impossible.
So everything indicates that he had only been in the water for a few hours at most.
That's why we think someone kidnapped him.
And when they felt the pressure from the government and the public,
maybe they went and dumped him there to mislead everyone.
People told us that, at the well where my father's body was found,
early that morning, the well was surrounded by cars.
They unloaded things there.
When the people in the community told the family
that Homero was detained in El Soldado,
that's because the residents of the area
know that some of the detention centers and safe houses are in El Soldado.
In other words, people are kidnapped, taken there, and left there.
The community knows when they go in and come out.
Sometimes they're members of rival cartels.
Sometimes they're leaders, like in the case of Homero.
Sometimes they're people kidnapped for economic purposes.
Everyone knows who they are,
how many there are, and where they're located.
That's why people had information about Homero's whereabouts,
and why the authorities weren't looking there.
They searched here, but evidently they knew.
As a coroner, as a forensic doctor,
as a scientist in this field,
I see a poor investigation.
The Prosecutor's Office is reporting
according to the data that has been verified so far.
Thank you very much.
If it wasn't complicity by direct involvement,
it was complicity by omission.
INTENTIONAL HOMICIDE SPECIALIZED UNIT
All signs point to it being deliberate.
But to confirm it, an extensive investigation is needed.
The fact that he died from drowning is similar to other activist cases.
Abisai Pérez Romero was found dead in Tula de Allende in Hidalgo.
He documented pollution in Tula.
According to the autopsy, he showed no signs of violence.
Environmentalist and caretaker of a howler monkey reserve, José Álvarez,
was murdered in Chiapas.
His body was found on the Emiliano Zapata Highway, next to Calatrava.
Environmental defender Adán Vez Lira was murdered.
He carried out significant work
to protect the ecosystems on the coast of Veracruz.
The Human Rights Commission
expressed sorrow over the murder of Margarito González,
environmental defender
and advocate for the sacred sites of the Wixárica community.
Samir Flores, an activist who opposed the construction
of the thermoelectric plant in Huexca, was assassinated.
Samir didn't die. The government killed him!
We are allowing environmental activists to be murdered with impunity in Mexico.
The Prosecutor's Office reported
that activist Homero Gómez was found dead.
Initial findings say there were no signs of violence.
It's possible that he died by drowning.
The Prosecutor's Office gave us his belongings.
He had money and his documents in his pants.
But when I asked the people handling the case for the car keys,
they said he didn't have car keys.
I asked, "Why haven't you examined this?"
"They took his cell phones. They probably also took the car key too."
I was so pissed off.
Days went by, and then they finally said they found the car key.
They said, "We couldn't find it because it was buried."
In the evidence picture, the key is dry.
It doesn't have dirt or stains on it.
The keys were handed over as found.
They weren't tampered with, because when collecting evidence,
forensic experts do everything with gloves,
following protocols to prevent contamination.
They asked me to bring the car back, because they'd forgotten to take pictures.
I had to bring it back so they could take pictures inside and outside the car
to have proof of how they found it.
It made no sense,
since I had been using the car for about a week in order to move around
and continue the search.
They took pictures of it as if it had just been found.
And those are the photos they have as evidence.
We were in close contact with a source we had in the Prosecutor's Office.
From the very beginning, we saw a lot of manipulation in Homero's case
because there were things that were simply unbelievable.
I wanted the public officials that were with my dad to be investigated.
They told us that someone had his iPad and phone.
We said, "They have his mobile devices?"
The individuals with his phone charged the battery and answered a call.
And as a result, the prosecution found out where the phone was.
At first, this group of public officials were suspects.
FORMER OCAMPO TRUSTEE KARINA ALVARADO'S ASSISTANT
The young man with his belongings was their assistant.
HEAD OF PRD PARTY IN MICHOACÁN FORMER OCAMPO ALDERWOMAN
He said that my brother left his things behind,
so he kept them safe.
And he didn't see my brother after that, so he took them.
My name is Elizabeth Guzmán Vilchis.
I'm from Ocampo.
I felt guilty, because I told myself,
"If I hadn't called him, none of this would've happened."
But you never know.
Several political colleagues were there.
One of them was Karina Alvarado.
And Octavio Ocampo Córdoba, who was the local congressman at the time.
OCAMPO TRUSTEE
My name is Octavio Ocampo.
I knew him through public life.
HEAD OF PRD PARTY IN MICHOACÁN
Homero was also a politician,
besides being an environmental activist and forest protector.
Horse races are very popular with the public.
We had the chance to meet him at the races.
We only exchanged a few greetings.
I probably left at around 6:00 in the afternoon.
It wasn't even dark yet.
We said goodbye, and I went home, and he stayed there.
To tell you the truth, our meeting was quite brief,
and I had no idea someone took his things.
We spent approximately two hours with him,
along with all the others I mentioned.
First, Octavio Ocampo started singing.
I don't remember which song.
The rest of us danced.
Then, Homero and Octavio started singing together.
In the photographs,
you can see that he has his iPad and phone with him the whole time.
He didn't even leave his devices behind to dance.
My colleagues argued that he left or forgot his devices at a drink stand.
It seems weird to me that, if we were all together,
and I see that you leave something behind,
I would give it to you right away, no?
Why would I take it with me?
It was Karina who took them and then gave them to her photographer.
We have some information about it,
but not enough to open an investigation.
About six months later, I went to the Prosecutor's Office.
I ran into a colleague who had been at the event.
She told me, "Hey, guess what?"
"Karina's photographer was killed shortly after this happened."
KARINA ALVARADO'S ASSISTANT
A commander of the investigation unit told me,
"We're concerned about something."
"Karina and Deputy Octavio filed for a writ of protection."
"Why didn't you?"
Why would I do that? I didn't do anything wrong.
I'm a lawyer, and I see no benefit in filing for protection,
because, after all, I'm not responsible.
We know that people who were with Homero
obtained legal protection to avoid being investigated or interrogated.
Can you tell us what happened?
They have every right to do so,
but we respect the decisions made by the authorities.
I've never been detained. I've never had any motives.
Same as now.
I don't understand.
Why protect yourself from something you weren't involved in?
Unless they were involved.
I can firmly say it's impossible.
This colleague who was there, she's totally innocent.
She had nothing to do with this.
The other colleague who was there too,
I don't know if he was a deputy at the time.
He's a very healthy young man, with no ulterior motives.
Did they hide something?
Well, I can't confirm that.
But I'm convinced that there's nothing there.
When Silvano became governor, Octavio Ocampo was a deputy.
Silvano, Octavio Ocampo, and Karina Alvarado
were always together.
Why did Karina's friend have Homero's belongings?
Why did Karina and Octavio Ocampo file for a writ of protection?
Up to this point, they're not suspects.
I just wanted them to give their testimony of what had happened
because they were the last people who were with him.
Not because I think they're guilty,
but because I believe they might have information
that could lead to the arrest of the people who actually did it.
Homero was a very important figure who condemned illegal logging
as one of the main causes of damage to the reserve
where the monarch butterfly dwells.
The symbol that was established for the TLC at the time.
There was no accident there.
Someone not only wanted to eliminate him,
they also wanted to send a message to any other social leader
who dared to protect the trees and the communities.
I heard that the Prosecutor's Office
was gonna investigate my uncles Amado and Juan.
They said it was odd that they were so concerned about the case.
That perhaps they were involved.
So they were gonna start investigating them.
The Michoacán Prosecutor's Office often engages in judicial harassment
against the relatives of the murdered victim to deter them.
To hinder them, and to prevent them from asking uncomfortable questions.
This is not the first time the Michoacán Prosecutor's Office
has resorted to this tactic.
They turn the investigation against the victims
in order to make them withdraw, halt the media coverage of the case,
and ultimately, to stop the pressure on authorities.
I decided to withdraw from the investigation out of fear
because as they progressed, you don't know what you're getting into.
The family is exposed.
That's why, to a large extent, we decided to leave the investigation,
out of concern for our safety.
As you can see, we have eight volumes.
Well, you may see a pile of paper,
but the work we carried out is here.
And up to this point, contained in these files,
there is no conclusive information
that suggests that Homero died a violent death.
We only have scientific evidence
that Homero died from mechanical asphyxia.
Meaning he drowned.
The authorities' version not only doesn't make sense,
but becomes dismissive,
and humiliates the intelligence of the media, the readers,
and Homero's memory itself.
They do this so regional prosecutors
don't issue arrest warrants against illegal loggers,
so that hitmen and criminal leaders are released,
and so that the state police
that participate in guarding convoys of illegally-harvested wood is protected.
The involvement of the authorities is necessary.
And we are talking about the regional prosecutors and the state police.
And for this to happen,
there must be an agreement with the heads of government.
I don't have evidence,
but I have no doubt that Homero's murder was ordered by members of organized crime.
He was bringing the attention of media and the government
to an area where they wanted to cover their illicit activities
with a veil of darkness.
Andrés, can you explain to us
who these people are that are logging illegally?
I can't answer that.
I'm sorry. No.
That's okay. Are you afraid you might put your life at risk?
Yes.
My life and the lives of my colleagues.
The loggers, the avocado growers,
and the transportation businesses are all controlled by organized crime.
Locals must pay them a share of their earnings to be allowed to work.
If any of them fail to comply,
they risk being killed.
They must comply with the state, but also with the municipality.
Violence continues unabated in Mexico.
Omar Colina Lanis, secretary of Ocampo in Michoacán,
and his father were shot dead in the municipality of Zitácuaro.
Their bodies were found inside a vehicle with gunshot wounds.
The prosecutor of Michoacán
is already conducting the corresponding investigations of the case.
Regarding the case of the Biosphere Reserve
and the murder of Homero, it was like a butterfly effect.
Let's take the Super Bowl for example.
A Super Bowl fan buys a hot dog or a hamburger with avocado.
But this avocado, to reach the United States,
it has to pass through fake customs controls ignored by the authorities.
This avocado was produced in Michoacán in an area controlled by the cartels.
Before producing avocados, they deforested
by illegally logging wood in an area which was defended by locals.
In this case, like Homero.
We must break the chain at some point.
Either in the US or in Mexico.
Maybe with the intervention of the federal authorities.
But something is going wrong somewhere.
I think everything is going wrong in Michoacán.
An old friend used to say,
"Everything that could go wrong in Michoacán
went even worse."
Michoacán loses almost 175,000 acres of forest every year.
This is a third of the region in eastern Michoacán,
and the truth is that it happens right under our noses.
The monarch butterfly, known for its orange, black, and brown wings,
was declared endangered last July
by the International Union of Conservation of Nature.
Forty years after one of the most beautiful discoveries on the planet,
the migration of the monarch butterfly is in danger.
The monarch butterfly population
has declined by between 22% and 72%
over the past decade.
Scientists blame climate change,
pesticides, and illegal logging.
It's a fact that the monarch butterfly could disappear.
We will continue our fight. We have an advantage.
In order to get to the reserve, they must pass through the village.
And in the village, we are standing guard.
Even if they kill us all, we'll fight to the end,
because we'll protect this place with all of our might,
just as our comrade, Homero, used to protect it.
As a family, we knew it wasn't an accident.
What message are we sending
if there's no accountability in all of this?
When we arrived with Homero, the place was full of people.
Friends and family, members from various communities, waiting for him.
When I saw the hearse, I had this sensation that I can't explain.
My eyes filled with tears,
and I felt so sad knowing that he was in the hearse.
I wanted to take him in the same hearse he came in.
But the people didn't want that.
The people wanted to carry the coffin.
And people from everywhere started to approach.
We all surrounded him.
And he was taken one last time
to the place where he was photographed with his butterfly wings.
Homero is here! We can feel it.
Homero will take care of them!
I couldn't believe it.
In the same place where I had recently taken a picture of him,
looking so happy with his arms wide open,
he was now in that same place for the very last time.
He worked tirelessly to preserve our forests.
We searched tirelessly for him.
We want his family to know that they have our solidarity.
All his people are here.
We're all here.
Thank you to everyone.
We're very sad.
I knew how much we were going to miss him.
I even cried.
NOVEMBER 2, 2022 EL ROSARIO, MICHOACÁN
On the Day of the Dead,
we traditionally go to the cemetery to place a wreath on the grave
and decorate the grave with flowers and other things.
Here. Here it is.
It won't hold.
HOMERO'S MOM
Mary, mother of grace and mother of mercy...
Sacred Heart of Jesus...
The Otomí and Mazahua beliefs
already referred to them as the souls of the dead.
Homero later called them "brides of the sun."
The butterflies are coming down to get water.
Later, they'll be looking for flowers.
The travelers, the harvesters, the brides of the sun.
The souls of the dead.
I believe my dad comes back with the butterflies.
That's why I like to go to the sanctuary
and immerse myself among the butterflies alone.
I feel as if he's there with me.
And together, we're watching the show, waiting for the sunlight to touch them
and see how they all flutter around.
I start to recall all those moments
and talk to him as if he was there with me but recalling the past.
Oxygen.
- What do butterflies breathe? - Really?
That's why there have to be trees in order for them to live.
So this is where butterflies come to rest.
So at moments, I laugh alone,
because I feel like I'm talking to my dad.
Maybe I'll become the new guardian of the butterflies.
I do want to follow in my father's footsteps.
It's what he taught me.
I want to continue this so his legacy can keep growing.
I'm not afraid, because my dad always said
that if we're gonna do something, we must do it without fear.
I am determined to do this.
IN 2022, THE MIGRATORY MONARCH BUTTERFLY
WAS DECLARED ENDANGERED
THE INVESTIGATION OF HOMERO'S DEATH REMAINS OPEN
BUT NO UPDATES HAVE BEEN REPORTED
Thank you.
Let's see what information you cherry-pick.
KARINA ALVARADO REFUSED TO GIVE AN INTERVIEW
Silvano has committed himself, but he has not complied.
Let's see what they end up deciding to do.
We'll make sure that no one cuts down any trees.
SILVANO AUREOLES IS UNDER INVESTIGATION
FOR ILLICIT GAIN, EMBEZZLEMENT, AND ORGANIZED CRIME
IN 2022, AMADO GÓMEZ WAS ELECTED OCAMPO'S MAYOR
AMADO IS PROTECTED BY GUARDS DUE TO THE RISK OF ATTACKS AGAINST HIM
MEXICO IS ONE OF THE DEADLIEST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS
MOST OF THEIR HOMICIDES GO UNPUNISHED