In an interview with “Los Periodistas”, Micaela Cabañas accused the Guerreo Government of betraying the memory of social struggles by honoring Ruben Figueroa Figueroa, a man who persecuted and murdered thousands of Guerrero residents, including his father, the historic guerrilla Lucio Cabañas.
Mexico City, November 12 (However).- Micaela Cabañasdaughter of the rural teacher and guerrilla Lucio Cabañas Barrientos, described as a “mockery towards the victims” the tribute that the government of Guerreroheaded by the morenista Evelyn Salgadosurrendered to Ruben Figueroa Figueroaone of those responsible for the persecution and murder of his father, which occurred in December 1974.
“It is a mockery of the victims, it is a mockery of those of us who have suffered from that government. It makes me sick to say his name, I don’t even dare to pronounce it. It is a lack of respect for all the victims and survivors who lived and suffered everything that he caused us in the state of Guerrero,” said Micaela Cabañas in an interview with “Los Periodistas”, a program that is broadcast through the SinEmbargo Al Aire YouTube channel.
Cabañas regretted that a government that calls itself leftist and that assumes itself as the heir of social struggles pays tribute to those who were executioners of the people of Guerrero.
“I cannot applaud the government that today represents the left and I can generate a very legitimate claim: they are very poorly informed, they do not know the history of the state they represent and govern. It is painful that they are leading the state. These officials must be dismissed,” he stated.
Rubén Figueroa Figueroa, known as the “Tigre de Huitzuco”, was Governor of Guerrero between April 1, 1975 and March 31, 1981. His name is linked to one of the darkest stages in the history of the state: the Dirty War. During his mandate, murders, forced disappearances and the persecution of peasants, activists and militants of the guerrillas of the Party of the Poor, led by Lucio Cabañas Barrientos, and the National Revolutionary Civic Association, led by Genaro Vázquez Rojas, are attributed to him.
Despite this history, the Government of Guerrero and the Huitzuco City Council, both from Morena, paid tribute to the former PRI governor last Sunday for the 117th anniversary of his birth. The event, held in a preschool that bears his name, was attended by the Government delegate in the Northern region, Rodolfo Jesús Martínez Méndez —representing Governor Evelyn Salgado Pineda—, and the director of Municipal Education, Horacio Astudillo Barrios, representing the Morenoist Mayor Eder Nájera Nájera. His son, Rubén Figueroa Alcocer, former governor and accused of massacres such as those in Aguas Blancas and El Charco, was also in the presidium.
The official tribute unleashed a wave of indignation among relatives of victims of repression and survivors of the Dirty War
In this regard, the daughter of the historic leader of the Party of the Poor considered that the tribute to Rubén Figueroa Figueroa reflects “ignorance and lack of historical sensitivity” on the part of those who organized the official event.
“It was a serious mistake by the person who directs the civic activities. It is not about commemorating for the sake of commemorating. Ignorance and ignorance won over them. I can only demand justice, what we victims have always demanded, and this is not part of justice: commemorating murderers, genocidaires. It cannot be, we are outraged,” he said.
Micaela Cabañas recalled that in 2024, when it was 50 years since her father’s death, she formally requested the Government of Guerrero to pay him a civic tribute in her community, but the request was rejected by Governor Evelyn Salgado.
“Last year I very strongly asked for a tribute to be given, but on the 2nd, just when the march and the event were going to start, the person in charge of civic activities told me: ‘sister, it couldn’t be done, the Governor didn’t authorize it,’” she said.
The activist also criticized that, after the controversy unleashed on November 9 by the commemoration of the person responsible for the military operation that ended her father’s life, no authority has offered an apology so far.
“Many died, many of us are victims of that person and we cannot believe what happened. The worst of all is that whoever is responsible for giving an apology has not come forward to show their face. We want them to show their face,” he insisted.
“It makes me angry and sad that many had to die so that today those who call themselves heirs of social struggles stab us in the back,” he concluded.