Activist searching for disappeared attacked in Culiacán, survives gunfire

Alma Rosa Rojo, a pioneer in Sinaloa's search-for-the-disappeared movement, was ambushed while driving with her daughter Yesenia, her seven-year-old granddaughter on her lap and a twelve-year-old granddaughter in the back seat. Two men in a separate vehicle blocked their path, exited, and opened fire, delivering eight shots aimed at Rojo, one of which passed through her left arm and lodged near her spine. The bullets also struck the car’s windshield and the other occupants, though the children escaped unharmed and Yesenia suffered a graze wound.

The Sinaloa Attorney General’s Office is investigating the incident as an attempted femicide, possibly tied to Rojo’s activism in locating her brother Miguel Ángel, who vanished in 2009. The shooting took place near a heavily militarized zone established after a cartel split between Los Chapitos and Los Mayitos in September 2024. Authorities have deployed around 300 troops to the area, but no suspects have been detained. Rojo believes the assailants intended to kill her.