Erik Saracho Aguilar, a journalist, activist, and environmentalist, a land defender and director of Alianza Jaguar A.C., was shot and killed Wednesday morning as he returned home after dropping his daughter off at school in the town of San Francisco, better known as San Pancho, in the municipality of Bahía de Banderas, on the Riviera Nayarit. Members of the community and Saracho’s colleagues gathered just hours after the attack, from which he survived, and demanded, before local media and the municipal police, an investigation into who was behind the attack. They also denounced this assault as the latest in a long list of threats, intimidation, and attacks against land defenders in the region. “Now we all fear for our lives,” activist Indira Santos told the crowd.
Saracho Aguilar, one of Nayarit’s best-known environmentalists and defenders, has been under the protection of the Mexican government for approximately four years. His house, according to his associates, has security cameras and perimeter walls that make it difficult to access. However, according to testimonies from people close to him, on Wednesday morning a red sedan parked outside his house, and when Saracho went out to see who it was, a man got out of the car and shot him directly in the face. Saracho survived the attack, they say, because his immediate reaction was to cover his face with his arms, which caused injuries for which he will undergo surgery at the hospital.
Indira Santos, a close associate of Saracho, also an activist and spokesperson for Red Más, which brings together some 30 civil organizations defending the territory of the municipalities of Bahía de Banderas, Puerto Vallarta, and Compostela, has stated that there are several ongoing legal proceedings against real estate developments and actions against the environment in the Nayarit Riviera that have maintained the confrontation between the region’s defenders and business owners and even public officials for many years.
Santos recounted by phone that last Monday a group of environmentalists, including herself and Saracho, held a public meeting with the mayor, Héctor Santana, a member of the Morena party, and representatives of the developers of Ysuri, a residential complex built in San Pancho, with apartments on a beachfront property.
At that meeting, it was agreed to hold a working session this Wednesday with the participation of municipal authorities, members of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), community representatives, a consulting firm, and representatives from the Urban Development department. However, the night before, on Tuesday, after a meeting at Saracho’s house, they decided to cancel their participation, claiming they did not have enough information to analyze the project and take a position on it. “Yesterday everything was fine. We finished seeing each other at 11 p.m. at his house, everything was calm, we texted each other, and today at 6:15 a.m. he was taking his daughter to the bus stop for school, and on his way back, a car pulled up outside his house. He turned around, and a guy got out and shot him twice point-blank in the face. He covered himself with his forearms, so the bullets hit him there. Thanks to him, or to someone else, because honestly, they were shooting to kill,” he says.
Saracho used the panic button he has as a safety measure, and once safely inside his house, he and his wife waited for about an hour until the police arrived and took him safely to the hospital.
Santos recalls that, in addition to the current legal process surrounding the Ysuri development, they have also been engaged in another legal battle, for the past eight years, with a luxury beachfront residential and condominium development called Punta Paraíso. He adds that part of the outcome of that litigation has resulted in complaints against Saracho and the freezing of his bank accounts and those of three other environmental activists. “Profepa (the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection) has already issued a demolition order because they are appropriating 1,700 square meters, and Erik and three other colleagues are facing complaints and their accounts are currently frozen. Erik is being silenced,” he adds.
Santos has denounced the confrontation with a businessman who owns several developments and who also accused Saracho of extortion. “Here, the developers line up and do their dirty work.” A few months ago, a specific defense process began with Carlos Chalita, who is responsible for Ysuri, which has three developments: one in Bucerías, where we denounced and closed it because he built a breakwater on the beach without permits; then he has one in Sayulita, where we have not done anything, and one that is about to be built here in San Pancho.
Source: elpais
