District Attorney María Elena Andrade will have the facilities she needs from the State Secretary of Citizen Security as part of the investigation,” she indicated in her message.
For its part, the family of Rodríguez Peña declared to local media that their relative had received threats for several years, but did not hide from anything or anyone, and sold fish in different neighborhoods of Mexicali.
In February 2023, Rodríguez was declared innocent by a judge after spending two years in preventive detention, accused of organized crime affecting the environment, as he was identified as a presumed operator of the illegal fishing of the totoaba fish, which has contributed to the extinction of the vaquita marina in northwest Mexico.
After four weeks of trial, in which the Attorney General's Office (FGR) presented more than 20 witnesses, including security and investigative agents who followed, spied on, and listened to the private conversations of Sunshine Rodríguez, Judge Enrique Miranda determined that the Public Ministry “did not present solid evidence, testimonies, or compelling proof that established the responsibility of the accused in any crime.”
Fishing leader Sunshine Rodríguez Peña, who was shot dead on Saturday while working on the streets of Mexicali, Baja California, received more than 40 shots, reported the State Attorney General's Office (FGE) on Sunday. “This was definitely an atypical case because it is not an area considered to have high crime or violence rates,” explained the head of the Attorney General's Office, María Elena Andrade, to the media.
The prosecutor added that it was allegedly a direct attack by at least three hooded men, who got out of a white vehicle and fired nine-millimeter caliber weapons. “There were no collateral victims, and we consider it was not the case despite the time, because the attack was direct on the person (…) all the shots, all the shells penetrated his body because he has more than 70 injuries, meaning some are entry wounds and others are exit wounds, almost all were directly on his body,” the official stated.
Andrade said they need to investigate “if (the attackers) waited for him to be alone at a moment” since there were also people accompanying him and no one else was injured. The Governor of Baja California, Marina del Pilar Ávila, noted in a message on social media that there would be no impunity and that they would pursue it to “the last consequences” to clarify the homicide. “We have requested the Attorney General's Office to clarify this event. (With information from EFE)
