The Sinaloa State Attorney General's Office identified Abel Labrador Sarabia, alias ‘El Pelirrojo’, as the alleged material author of the homicide of activist Rubí Patricia Gómez-Tagle, which occurred on February 27 in Mazatlán. Gómez-Tagle, 34 years old, was a mother searcher who was part of the collective ‘Corazones Unidos por una misma Causa’. Civil organizations demand a swift investigation and the capture of those responsible.
Rubí Patricia Gómez-Tagle, 34 years old, was found lifeless in her home in the Infonavit Jabalíes neighborhood in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, on Friday, February 27. According to the Sinaloa State Attorney General's Office, she had wounds caused by a stabbing weapon, and her body was taken to the Forensic Medical Service for necropsy.
Gómez-Tagle was searching for her son, who disappeared on May 29, 2025, last seen on Santa Rosa Avenue in the same neighborhood. She had joined the mother searchers' collective ‘Corazones Unidos por una misma Causa’ to locate her son and other missing persons.
That day, the collective had an appointment at the Mazatlán Attorney General's Office, followed by a search day in the El Verde area, where a clandestine grave with five bodies of Vizsla Silver company miners was discovered weeks earlier. When Rubí did not arrive at the appointment, her colleagues, including Laura Ivonne Valdés Ramírez, founder of the collective, went to her home. They found the door half-open and Rubí bloodied and lifeless.
The investigation points to Abel Labrador Sarabia, ‘El Pelirrojo’, an operator of the criminal cell ‘Las Flechas’, linked to the Los Cabrera cartel, which operates in Durango, Sonora, and Chihuahua. This group is attributed with illegal deprivations of liberty, vehicle thefts with violence, armed assaults, and express kidnappings in southern Sinaloa.
Civil organizations and human rights defenders have demanded that the Attorney General's Office not delay the probe and proceed with the immediate capture. “It is not just an attack on one person; it is an attempt to silence the search for thousands,” stated representatives of local collectives. The investigation file remains in the integration phase under ministerial secrecy, with no confirmed arrest warrants so far.
This homicide represents a blow to the collectives of relatives of the disappeared in Sinaloa, who operate in conditions of vulnerability due to the lack of institutional progress.
