Radio Mundo Real

By Jubilee South Americas

Six years have passed since our colleague and friend, Bety Cariño, was cowardly murdered by Mexican paramilitary officers on April 27, 2010. While traveling in a humanitarian convoy to San Juan Copala, she and other members of the delegation were brutally attacked. Activist and human rights defender Jyri Jaakkola, from Finland, was also murdered in this attack.

The goal of the convoy was to bring humanitarian help to San Juan Copala, a community that had been blocked by the army and had no access to food or medicine. Bety wanted the world to know what was happening. She wanted to call for help in light of this situation.

We remember Bety as a warrior of all times and dimensions possible; involved with her people; with her origins as a Mixteca indigenous woman, as a leader, as a friend. We will always remember her joy for life, her laughter that filled all spaces, her wanting to live a full life, committed to justice.

Six years have passed, and nobody has been prosecuted. But we, as peoples in resistance, reject the actions of the Mexican State, of paramilitarism, corporate capital, the patriarchal, sexist and class-biased system, that system that Bety fought and rebelled against.

Sister, friend... your absence hurts. You will always be with us.