On Monday night (20/6), two Jesuit priests and a tourist guide who took refuge were killed at a church in the town of Cerocahui in the Mexican state of Chihuahua while being followed by a gunman.
The bodies of clergy identified as Javier Campos Morales, 78, and Joaquin Césaer Mora Salazar, 80, and the third victim, Pedro Eliodoro PG, have been stolen and missing.
One person was declared a suspect, but Mexican authorities did not reveal his identity.
The incident shocked the country’s Jesuit community, who sought protection from the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, particularly in areas where organized crime is strong.
At a press conference Tuesday, 06/21, the Mexican president acknowledged the high levels of violence encountered in the Sierra de Tarahumara, in the north of the country, where Cerocahui is located.
“It’s an area where there is a significant amount of organized crime. It seems that there is already information about possible perpetrators of these crimes,” López Obrador said.
Image: Getty Images
The president confirmed the authorities’ statement and said that the tour guide was persecuted while seeking protection at the church.
Before the murders, four tourists were reportedly abducted in Chihuahua, including two men, a woman and a child. None found yet.
The victims were abducted from a hotel in the area, Reuters reported, citing unnamed police sources.
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Guillermo Fernández Maldonado, the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico, said the two priests were part of the team of people who had been doing “significant social work” with the Rarámuri indigenous community for the longer term. more than two years..
Jesuit Luis Gerardo Moro Madrid of the Society of Jesus in Mexico criticized the violence.
“They were killed in the context of the violence this country has experienced after trying to defend a man who took refuge in the church and was persecuted by a gunman,” Moro Madrid said in a press release. Said.
We demand that the bodies of our brothers taken from the church by armed men be brought to justice and found.”
The priest also condemned the violence in northern Mexico, where people are arbitrarily killed “every day”.
‘This text was originally published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-61898641.‘
source: Noticias
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