A Mexican peace activist and ally of the poet Javier Sicilia's Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity was shot to death in the state of Sonora, the organization said

Nepomuceno Moreno Nunez, 56, was outspoken in his search for justice in the kidnapping of his son and three others in Sonora. He accused police of accosting the youths and having a hand in their disappearance. He was shot as he crossed a street in Hermosillo, the state capital, authorities said. The Sonora state attorney general's office did not say whether Moreno Nunez's killing was related to his work as an activist, but did say that he had been imprisoned previously for possessing a weapon exclusively for military use. The attorney general's office said that Moreno Nunez was involved in an armed incursion of a home in 2005. According to the Mexico City daily Reforma, however, the authorities failed to mention that he was released from prison after being absolved. The Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity called on Sonoran authorities to investigate the killings thoroughly and to provide protection to Moreno Nunez's family as needed.