https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/homero-gomez-gonzalez-mexicos-monarch-butterfly-defender-found-dead/2020/01/29/697d7c94-42ed-11ea-99c7-1dfd4241a2fe_story.html?itid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-world%3Ahomepage%2Fcard-ans

Homero Gómez González, a former logger who became one of central
Mexico's most prominent defenders of the region's monarch butterfly population,
was found dead Wednesday.

Gómez González disappeared Jan. 13, sending a shock wave through communities of
environmental conservationists in the United States and Mexico. Local
authorities created search teams, and the state attorney general launched an
investigation. Almost immediately, his fellow activists suspected loggers and
criminal groups whom Gómez González might have upset in his conservation
efforts.

Gómez González was found floating in a well near the butterfly sanctuary he had
spent decades working to preserve, according to Miguel Angel Cruz, who succeeded
Gómez González as commissioner of the community of El Rosario. The cause of
death is not yet known.

In an interview with The Washington Post last month at El Rosario Monarch
Butterfly Preserve, Gómez González spoke about his efforts — and the challenges
he faced as he tried to protect the migrating butterflies.

“It’s been a fight to maintain it,” he said. “And it hasn’t been easy.”