Only nine of the approximately 100 people involved in a lynching in Puebla in 2020 have been arrested, the lawyer representing one victim’s family said this week.

Arturo Nicolás Baltazar said about 100 people were involved when Edmunda Adela Martínez Velázquez and a man identified as Antonio were confused for child abductors and lynched in October 2020 in San Nicolás Buenos Aires, 90 kilometers east of Puebla city.

Martínez and Antonio were tied to a pole and beaten while their attackers tried to set them on fire. The lynching was filmed and went viral on social media. Martínez, a 43-year-old lawyer, was travelling to León, Guanajuato, to visit two of her five children.

“If justice is done, there would have to be at least 100 people detained, because it is proven that there were about 100 residents who participated in these heinous events,” Baltazar said.

“Not punishing all the participants creates impunity and means this type of event will be repeated,” he added, and insisted that more people should be arrested for the crime.

The lawyer also accused justice authorities of not taking the case seriously and said judicial process had not been properly respected.

Baltazar thinks the trial will take place in about eight months.

Puebla is the second worst state in the country for lynchings, behind México state. In 2020, there were nine lynchings and 148 attempted lynchings in Puebla, the newspaper Milenio reported.

With reports from Milenio