The Primate of the Roman Catholic Church, Francis, on Wednesday deplored the murder of two Jesuits and a man who tried to save themselves by taking refuge in their church in northern Mexico by a group of gunmen, while the bodies of the priests, taken away by the thugs, were found.
The Pope - the first to come from the ranks of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit order - expressed his "sadness" and "astonishment" at the killings Monday night of "two Jesuit brothers" and a layman inside the church in the village of Serocahu, in the remote mountains of Chihuahua state.
"So many murders in Mexico. I am at the side, with affection and prayer, of the Catholic community affected by this tragedy," said Jorge Bergoglio, insisting that "violence does not solve problems, it increases unnecessary suffering."
The murders of priests Javier Campos Morales, 79, and Joaquin Cesar Mora Salazar, 81, as well as the tourist guide, caused intense emotion in Mexico.
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, confirmed on Wednesday that their alleged killer had been identified and added that a manhunt had been launched.
He is 30-year-old Jose Noriel Portillo, already wanted by authorities for the 2018 murder of an American tourist, according to Mexican media reports.
On Wednesday night, the governor in Chihuahua state, Maru Campos, announced that the bodies had been found. "We were able to locate and recover" the bodies of "the Jesuit priests," she said in a video uploaded to social media sites.
The bodies were formally identified and it was announced that a reward of 250 was being offered.000 dollars for any information that would allow the suspect to be apprehended.
The Mexican bishops' conference condemned this "tragedy" and called for a "swift investigation" and more security for church members in the country.
The Society of Jesus also called for "protection measures", stressing that crimes of this nature are not "isolated", instead "every day men and women are arbitrarily murdered".
Open semi-truck
"We believe that () the two Jesuits intervened," recounted the head of Mexico's Jesuit order, Luis Gerardo Moro Madrid, citing the testimony of a third priest who was there.
"The perpetrator shot the man who was chasing both Jesuits," he added, during an interview with Radio Formula. All three died instantly.
"I am sorry, but we will take the bodies," said the gunman who opened fire, according to the chief of the Jesuits. The three bodies were loaded into the back of an open semi-truck by other gunmen and covered with plastic. Then the group fled.
Father Jorge Atilano Gonsales, also a Jesuit, told the Milenio television network that the two priests knew the gunman, a local man, and intervened to try to calm him down.
"He wanted to confess" after he killed them, added priest Atilano Gonsales, who also relied on the testimony of the third priest. "We think he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs because of his reaction."
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the killings of the two priests, who "had been carrying out for more than 20 and 30 years respectively important social and pastoral work" in the remote area, trying to protect "the culture of the Ramamuri community in all its dimensions" and "the environment".
The Ramamuri (or Taraumara) tribe settled in this inaccessible region to save themselves from the conquistadors, the Spanish conquerors.
President Lopez Obrador acknowledged that several remote mountain communities in Chihuahua face problems due to the presence of "organized crime."
According to experts, the mountains in Chihuahua are part of the drug trafficking route to the United States, over control of which several cartels clash.
Priests try in some areas of Mexico to act as mediators between residents and the enforcers - or chicarios - of organized crime.
About thirty priests have been murdered in the last decade in Mexico, according to the non-governmental organization Centro Católico Multimedial.
Mexico has recorded, according to official figures, more than 340.000 murders and tens of thousands of disappearances since the so-called "war on drugs" was launched in December 2006, with the deployment of the armed forces inside the country.
Source: CNA
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