Mexican mother searching for missing son is killed

Teresa Magueyal was shot dead in Celaya, the same city where her son had disappeared

A mother who was searching for her missing son has been killed in the Mexican state of Guanajuato.

Teresa Magueyal was shot dead by two men on a motorbike while she was cycling through the streets of her home town, Celaya.

Ms Magueyal was part of the group "A Promise to Be Kept" which is made up of relatives of children who have disappeared.

She is the sixth volunteer of such a group to be killed since 2021.

Ms Magueyal joined "A Promise to Be Kept" after her son José Luis Apaseo Magueyal, 34, disappeared three years ago.

According to his mother, Mr Apaseo, who also lived in Celaya, was last seen by a relative as he headed to the shops to buy food for his four daughters.

There have been no clues as to whether he may be alive or dead.

Disappearances are common in Mexico and very few cases are ever resolved.

With more than 100,000 people missing, desperate relatives have banded together to try locate their loved ones.

Some dig for remains in areas where criminal gangs are known to dispose of bodies. Others try to piece together information from anonymous tip-offs.

But increasingly, mothers who have joined such groups, have themselves become targets.

Ms Magueyal was gunned down in broad daylight as she was cycling past a kindergarten.

In November, María Vázquez Ramírez, who was searching for her son Osmar, was shot dead in Abasolo, also in Guanajuato state.

A month previously, armed men chased after Esmeralda Gallardo through the streets of Puebla, in Mexico state, and shot her dead as she stood at a bus stop.

Ms Gallardo had been searching for her 22-year-old daughter Betzabé, who, she feared, had become a victim of sex trafficking.

Another mother, Rosario Lilian Rodríguez, was kidnapped in Sinaloa state in August as she was leaving a mass held for her disappeared son. Her body was found dumped by the roadside the next day.

Activists say the mothers are targeted by the same criminal gangs that are behind the disappearance of their children.

Threatening messages are sometimes painted on their homes telling them to "stop sticking their noses in" and many have received death threats.

Cecilia Flores, who founded the group Mothers Who Search in Sonora state, denounced in October a reward offered by a jailed criminal for anyone who would kill her.

The prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into Ms Magueyal's killing.