A Tragic Loss in México

By Piero A. Tozzi, J.D. | November 11, 2011

A helicopter crashed earlier today in Mexico City. A number of brave men died.

Among the eight who died was Francisco Blake Mora, the Secretary of the Interior, who was leading México’s war against the drug cartels.

Another was Interior Department Undersecretary Felipe de Jésus Zamora Castro, whose responsibilities included human rights.

Zamora deserves special mention, because he fought to uphold a true vision of human rights, one spacious enough to include very much the unborn. When the Supreme Court of Mexico was considering a challenge to amendments in several state constitutions that protected the unborn earlier this year, Zamora came out with a forceful letter that defended the dignity of the unborn child: “Here, there can be no doubt, we are speaking of a being, and this being, is a human being, who possesses an intrinsic dignity and who is the subject of rights. Of human rights.”

Zamora was bold where others were timid.

He viewed the human rights tradition in its entirety, evoking in his letter to the Supreme Court the great sixteenth century founders of international human rights law, Bartolomé de las Casas and Francisco de Vitoria, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King – all three of whom, it should be noted, were clergymen who saw the Imagio Dei in their fellowman.

The helicopter that crashed today was transporting the officials to a meeting of prosecutors who are on the front line in the war against the narcotraffickers. While reports blame bad weather as a factor in the crash, it is the speculation of many that this was no accident, and that these brave individuals died in the line of duty.

Regardless, it is fitting that on Armistice Day we remember the sacrifices of those who fight the righteous fight for true human dignity, and add the names of these brave souls to our prayers: Francisco Blake Mora, Felipe de Jésus Zamora Castro, José Alfredo García Medina, Diana Haiton Sánchez, René Calderón, Felipe Caso Cortés, Pedro Ramón Escobar Bacerra and Jorge Luis Juárez Gómez.

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