Who wants Rogaciano Alba dead?

Alba is a rural strongman who dominates economic and political life in one of Mexico's roughest stretches of countryside.

He was long active in the Ruben Figueroa Landowners Association, which worked with loggers gathering wood in the threatened forests of the coastal mountain range. Human rights groups say much of the logging was illegal.

Logging remains big business: Huge trucks continue to rumble down the coastal highway through Petatlan, groaning under the weight of old-growth fir and pine cut from dwindling forests.

Activists intimidated
In the 1990s when Alba was tied to the group, activists who tried to stop the loggers were threatened, jailed, shot at and sometimes killed. A group of Mexico City lawyers took up their cause, and the best-known, Digna Ochoa, was shot to death in Mexico City in 2001.

Investigators ruled her death a suicide, but activists believe she was killed and have demanded the investigation be reopened — with Alba as a prime suspect. Mexico City prosecutors will not confirm whether there is an active investigation against Alba in the Ochoa case.

Others speculate the killings could be tied to drugs. Mexico's main drug cartels are fighting over the Guerrero coast, with their gun battles reaching even international resorts like Acapulco. Along the coast, boats laden with cocaine land from Colombia, and in the mountains farmers tend opium poppies and marijuana plantations.

Many farmers in the region are forced to plant, guard or transport drugs for the cartels, and it is hard to conceive that someone of Alba's stature wasn't at least approached by the cartels for help.

Could leftist rebels be involved?
The violence could also be related to the leftist rebels who have fought along the Guerrero coast since the 1970s, and landowners' attempts to defeat them.

Human rights groups are pressing the government to investigate mass graves suspected of holding the victims of counterinsurgency campaigns dating back three decades. The biggest group now is the People's Revolutionary Army, which first appeared in the 1990s after a police massacre of peasant activists and now targets oil pipelines.

Peasant groups have recently taken up the cause of the anti-logging activists — bringing them into direct confrontation with groups associated with Alba.

Family members say they have no idea what prompted the attacks. They deny that Alba was involved in anything illicit, pointing out that he served as Petatlan's mayor.

"People say a lot of things. But he is a rancher, that's all," said the daughter. "There is no explanation for this."

Meanwhile, Alba remains in hiding — and will likely stay there until he figures out who is gunning for him. Nobody has much confidence that Mexico's police can keep him safe.

"The killers have better weapons than the police," Alba's daughter said. "Most cops make barely a living wage. They're not going to risk their lives to take the gunmen on."

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