MEXICO CITY — A Roman Catholic priest who was a number one voice for peace and conciliation in Mexico’s strife-torn southern Chiapas state was assassinated Sunday after celebrating Mass, authorities stated, sparking a wave of denunciations all through the nation.
Two assailants on a bike fired at Father Marcelo Pérez, 41, who was discovered useless inside a automobile within the metropolis of San Cristóbal de las Casas, in keeping with prosecutors in Chiapas.
The priest had obtained a number of threats on his life as he advocated for peace in Mexico’s poorest state, which borders Guatemala and is a significant transit level for U.S.-bound unlawful medicine and migrants, in addition to arms destined for Mexican gangs.
Mexico’s two largest prison syndicates — the Sinaloa and the Jalisco New Technology cartels — are at battle for smuggling routes in Chiapas, authorities say, typically shopping for the allegiance of smaller prison bands that function all through the state.
The continuing battle has compelled 1000’s to flee for his or her lives, together with greater than 500 villagers who fled Chiapas into Guatemala in July. Some villages and cities in Chiapas have been left nearly abandoned.
“Chiapas is a time bomb,” Pérez informed Mexico’s Aristegui Noticias in September, when he was amongst 1000’s who took half in a Pilgrimage for Peace in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the state capital. “There are lots of disappeared, many kidnappings, many murders due to the presence of organized crime. … Towards this wave of violence, we search peace.”
Human rights activists condemned the priest’s killing and referred to as on officers to establish and arrest the assassins and whoever ordered the homicide. Spiritual leaders and others additionally demanded that the federal government take motion to stem the violence in Chiapas, the place well-armed gangs far outnumber police and troopers tasked with implementing the regulation.
“We reject any effort to reduce this deed as an remoted case and we make an pressing name to authorities for the restoration of order in Chiapas,” the Jesuit Order in Mexico stated in a press release. “Organized crime has prompted concern and ache in numerous components of the nation, and Chiapas is just not an exception. The violence on this area displays a structural downside that calls for an integral and pressing response from the state.”
Pérez was a local of Chiapas and, like a lot of the state’s inhabitants, was of Indigenous Mayan roots, a member of the Tzotzil-speaking tradition. He had lengthy intervened in struggles affecting the Indigenous poor within the state. Church officers transferred Pérez to San Cristóbal de las Casas, the historic colonial metropolis on the coronary heart of the Indigenous highlands, after he obtained demise threats at postings in rural parishes the place he had beforehand been assigned.
“For many years, Father Marcelo has been a logo of resistance and assist in Chiapas, defending the dignity, the rights of the folks, and the development of an genuine peace,” the Jesuit Order stated.
Authorities vowed to trace down Pérez’s killers, although officers didn’t instantly title any suspects.
“There won’t be impunity,” declared Rosa Icela Rodríguez Velázquez, Mexico’s chief of safety, in a press release on X. “Our solidarity [is] with the Catholic neighborhood.”
Tamping down Mexico’s violence is a significant problem for President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took workplace Oct. 1. Her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, downplayed the issue of violence in Chiapas, saying that reviews of rising crime within the southern state have been exaggerated.
Particular correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.
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