Emotional farewell to social activist Marco Suástegui, murdered in Acapulco

CACAHUATEPEC, Guerrero (apro).- “Long live Marco! Down with the La Parota Dam! Down with the gravel pits!” were the slogans of the final farewell of Marco Antonio Suástegui Muñoz, leader of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to the La Parota Dam (Cecop), who was murdered in Acapulco.

This Sunday morning, the 49-year-old peasant leader, an architect by profession, was buried in his hometown of Cacahuatepec.

On the night of April 18, he was shot three times by a lone gunman near Icacos Beach. He was mortally wounded, but struggled to survive for eight days. He was declared dead on the afternoon of Friday the 25th.

He did not have any precautionary measures from the federal government despite having reported death threats against him for his work as an opponent of the project's installation and for the search for his brother Vicente Iván, who disappeared in 2021 and whom he never saw again.

With the first rays of sunlight and the first notes of the "La Morena" song by the Papagayo band, the body left the house of his uncle Juan Suástegui, where the first Cecop meetings were held, and went up to the church esplanade, where relatives laid flowers and sprinkled holy water on him. The body then made its way to the cemetery.

On the dirt and dust streets of the town next to the river, hundreds of peasants wearing sandals and women with piles of flowers in their hands walked alongside the wooden coffin that wore a red scarf.

Weeping, prayers, funeral tones, slogans, and the sound of sharp machetes clashing together intertwined as the leader's body moved toward the cemetery.

At the front were four members of the Cecop (National Police Force), brandishing machetes. The procession was guarded by community police officers from the CRAC (National Police Force).

The 22 years of struggle of the "Yope Warrior," as known by his fellow countrymen, the most visible opponent of a CFE hydroelectric megaproject that has unsuccessfully sought to establish itself in these ejidos with the help of governors, businessmen, and organized crime, were fading away.

A wreath from Guerrero's governor, Morena's Evelyn Salgado Pineda, also arrived at the upper part of the town where the cemetery is located.

The day before, Suástegui Muñoz's body, in a coffin, crossed the Papagayo River for the last time by boat to reach his hometown.

“We will follow your example”

In front of his grave, the words of Abel Barrera Hernández, director of the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center, resounded:

"Here we are with you, here we come to honor you, we come to pay homage to you, we come to recognize your achievements! They killed you because they want the people to live on their knees, but we will follow your example, we will not allow it."

He recalled that Suástegui went to the UN to request its intervention, and that it determined that the dam could not be built if the people had said they did not want the project.

"It's a project that's doomed, and Marco taught us that we have to hold a consultation. He held it there with more than five thousand people in Agua Caliente. He brought in experts from UNAM and a CFE official to explain the advantages and disadvantages of the hydroelectric dam.

"It took center stage because it questioned the Commission's undersecretary, and it became clear that it was an economic project, that the goal was to remove the towns of Cacahuatepec so new entrepreneurs could be installed, and that was a triumph."

Abel Barrera said the deceased also had the vision to confront the agrarian courts.

You, he told those present, marched in Acapulco and confronted the officials.

"They were told that the land is not for sale, and they won five agrarian resolutions demonstrating that the state was driven by an illegal project."

He also highlighted the efforts to establish a community police force within the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities (CRAC) in his town, the center of the agricultural center.

The human rights defender stated that Cecop must continue.

“Here remains his body, his memory, his struggle, and his dignity. A defender of the people, a defender of the land, a defender of the river. We will not let you down.”

“Collusion with the State”

The funeral was attended by Ignacio del Valle Medina, leader of the People's Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) of San Salvador Atenco. Activists and social activists, such as Norma Mesino Mesino, leader of the Peasant Organization of the Southern Sierra (OCSS), also attended.

Also, figures close to power, such as Rogelio Ortega Martínez, former interim governor of Guerrero, after the fall of Ángel Aguirre Rivero for the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students in 2014.

Ortega Martínez boasted that he intervened to secure Marco Antonio Suástegui's release from the federal prison in Nayarit, where he was being held in inhumane conditions.

And Micaela Cabañas Ayala, daughter of guerrilla Lucio Cabañas Barrientos and current delegate, for a second term, of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) chaired by Rosario Piedra Ibarra.

At 9:15 in the morning, with the heat already incessant, the leader's grave was covered with dozens of tree branches.

There was a loud applause from those present and "Long live Marco!", "Long live CECOP!"

“Criminals killed him in collusion with the State, that's why we demand justice,” shouted a teacher from the Costa Chica region.