Mexico’s champion of the disappeared, Rosario Ibarra, dies

By MARIA VERZA
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Rosario Ibarra’s long struggle to learn the fate of her disappeared son helped develop Mexico’s human rights movement and led her to become the country’s first female presidential candidate. She died Saturday at age 95. The death was announced by the National Human Rights Commission now headed by her daughter,  Rosario Piedra. It called her a “pioneer in the defense of human rights, peace and democracy in Mexico.” She spent decades searching for information about her son, who apparently disappeared at the hands of authorities, accused of killing a police officer. Ibarra founded a movement demanding information about the fate of disappeared persons. Her son’s case was never clarified.