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A woman that spent months looking for her missing daughter was killed after being shot 10 times in the same place where her daughter was last seen.

The human rights activist Blanca Esmeralda Gallardo was murdered after receiving at least ten bullets while waiting for public transport on the side of the Mexico-Puebla highway on early Tuesday morning, 4th October.

Blanca’s tireless search to find the young woman who was her daughter and to achieve justice in a possible case of trafficking in women has ended up costing her life.

She had warned authorities that she was in danger but never received help from them.

Activists and NGOs demanded justice from state authorities, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Around five in the morning on Tuesday, a group of gunmen fired up to 10 shots that hit Blanca near her home while she was waiting for the bus, according to local media.

Witnesses claimed that five assassins were waiting for her to come out, and after shooting her, they fled.

Her neighbours who reportedly had heard the gunshots going off in their neighbourhood went outside to inspect and found Blanca laying in a pool of her own blood.

Blanca lost her husband to Covid-19 and when her daughter disappeared, her world fell apart.

She continued to fight for her 12-year-old son and for her granddaughter, Betza’s daughter, to whom she explained that her mother did not abandon her, but someone stole her.

Blanca undertook the search for her daughter by her own means and often risked her life by entering the Mexican state of Tenancingo – locally known as the cradle of human trafficking.

She was an active member of the collective “Voice of the Disappeared in Puebla”.

Last May she was interviewed about her daughter’s missing case, and she sent a few words to Betza: “I love you with all my soul and I’m still looking for you.”

Betzabe Alvarado Gallardo disappeared in January 2021 in Villa Frontera along with her friend, Fabiola Narvaez Rojas.

They were last seen going to the bank on a motorcycle before disappearing.

The State Governor, Luis Miguel Barbosa Huerta, who Blanca had turned to for help in the search of her daughter, condemned the murder of the activist and warned that the ones responsible will be brought to justice.

The investigation is currently ongoing.

(T4/ends)