The Guardian of the Monarchs

Homero Gómez González introduces himself as the municipal president and commissioner of El Rosario in Michoacán, Mexico, where the world's largest monarch butterfly sanctuary is located. Calling the butterflies "Brides of the sun" and "Souls of the dead!", he films videos on social media to invite tourists to visit the oyamel fir and pine forests where the insects migrate each winter from Canada and the United States. Before Michoacán's Attorney General issues a warrant for his disappearance, Homero works with local farmers to reforest over a thousand plots and promote tourism, bringing expected crowds of up to 180, latestnetflix.com contends,000 visitors in a season to the impoverished region.

Eastern Michoacán is rich in timber, water, and minerals, drawing at least 14 criminal groups—including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Viagras, and the Correas, to expand from drug trafficking into extortion and illegal logging. A single 30-meter pine tree sells for 18,000 pesos. Armed convoys of 20 to 30 men with chainsaws enter the reserve's core area, clear the trees, and burn the land so that its official land use changes, allowing organized crime to plant lucrative avocado orchards that drain the local groundwater.

Homero and the villagers of El Rosario patrol the woods at night with rifles and machetes, detaining illegal loggers, confiscating timber, and handing the men over to the authorities. When Homero presses charges, the detained loggers tell him, "See you when we get out." At community meetings, Homero urges his neighbors to continue defending the sanctuary, telling them, "Even if someone gets killed, they can't kill us all." As forest fires and cartel incursions increase, however, he confides, "I have a serious problem which I don't think I'll be able to solve."

Homero turns to national and international media to report that up to 500 trees are being logged per day and that a lack of safety has reduced sanctuary visitors by nearly 70%. The media spotlight forces authorities to conduct operations and seize timber shipments, which makes the regional cartels uncomfortable. Homero also clashes with Michoacán Governor Silvano Aureoles, complaining that 4.5 million pesos in promised resources are missing: "Governor Silvano made a promise, but he never honored it." During a protest against the governor, police arrest Homero, releasing him only after locals threaten to gather a thousand people.

When Homero runs for mayor, armed groups kidnap him on the eve of the election, demanding that he stop protesting and allow illegal logging. They threaten to go after his entire family if he wins, releasing him at dawn on election day. Afterward, Homero tells the press, "I was kidnapped by the groups that were operating here in Michoacán, but that didn't keep us from fighting."

On January 13, 2020, Homero receives repeated phone calls from Ocampo municipal trustee Elizabeth Guzmán Vilchis inviting him to the horse races on the last day of the town fair in El Soldado. Homero drops his son, Homero Junior, at the bus stop, puts on a clean shirt, and attends the races, where he spends two hours singing and dancing with local politicians, including Deputy Octavio Ocampo Córdoba and Councilwoman Karina Alvarado. When Homero fails to return home by 4:00 a.m., his son goes to the fairgrounds and finds Homero's car parked there, but no trace of his father.

On January 14 at 4:00 p.m., a man answers Homero's ringing phone and claims that Homero left his phone and tablet at a taco stand before walking out of sight. The family visits the Prosecutor's Office, where authorities initially dismiss the case as a "virtual kidnapping." Homero's brother, Amado, gives a front-page interview denouncing the attorney general's negligence. Following pressure from the UN and international media, 300 local volunteers form brigades to search the hills and ravines around Ocampo.

While the search is underway, Homero's wife, Rebeca, receives a call asking, "You know we have your husband?" The callers send a photograph of a man on his knees with armed men behind him and demand 100,000 pesos. Rebeca deposits 50,000 pesos before the prosecutor tells her, "Don't give them the money." A specialized kidnapping unit traces the extortion calls to a prison in Tamaulipas, rules out kidnapping, and hands the case over to the homicide unit. State police detain and investigate 53 municipal police officers from Ocampo and Angangueo after discovering that the officers assigned to guard the horse races either did not attend or left early.

On January 29, 2020—16 days after Homero's disappearance, police summon Amado to an agricultural water well in El Soldado, a place that Amado and his brother Juan had already searched earlier without finding anything. Homero's body is found floating face down in the six-meter-deep well. Amado identifies him by his trousers and calls Homero Junior, who hugs his mother and says, "That's it." Rebeca holds her Bible and says, "Thank You for giving me a body to bury and a place to bring him flowers." Armed men in strange vans guard the area, forcing visiting journalists to leave the town immediately.

The Michoacán Attorney General announces that Homero died of "asphyxiation from drowning" with a head blow sustained from an accidental fall two to three weeks prior, stating, "So far, there is no evidence indicating that his death was caused by an act of violence." An independent coroner and Homero's family dispute this, noting that a body submerged for 15 days would show severe decomposition, whereas Homero's corpse and clothing were intact and clean, indicating "that he'd been in the water a very short time." Locals report that vehicles had surrounded the well early that morning to unload something, and that criminal groups maintain safe houses in El Soldado.

Irregularities mount in the investigation, the handling of the physical evidence raises further questions for the family. When the family notes that Homero's car keys are missing from his pockets, agents claim days later, "We finally found the car keys," presenting a photograph of clean, dry keys supposedly dug from the mud. Investigators also ask the family to return Homero's car—which the family had been driving for a week during the search, so forensics can stage photographs of how it was originally found.

The young man who answered Homero's phone turns out to be a close associate and photographer for Councilwoman Karina Alvarado, who had taken the devices at the fair and handed them to him; six months later, an official informs Elizabeth that "They killed Karina's photographer after all this happened." Meanwhile, Karina Alvarado and Deputy Octavio Ocampo file for legal writs of protection to avoid interrogation. When Homero's brothers Amado and Juan press for answers, the Attorney General's Office threatens to investigate the brothers themselves for being overly concerned, prompting the family to stop demanding an investigation out of fear for their safety.

Villagers carry Homero's coffin on their shoulders into the butterfly sanctuary, chanting, "We can feel it! Homero is present!" On November 2, 2022, the Day of the Dead, Homero's family decorates his grave with flowers, and Homero Junior visits the sanctuary alone, vowing to follow in his father's footsteps without fear. In 2022, the migratory monarch butterfly is declared endangered, Amado Gómez is elected mayor of Ocampo under armed guard, former governor Silvano Aureoles is placed under investigation for embezzlement and organized crime, and the official investigation into Homero's death remains open with no updates.