Religious violence: 53 priests killed since the ‘war’ against the narco

With Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the homicide of 10 priests. While so far from the period of Claudia Sheinbaum adds two cases: that of Bertold Pantaleón and that of the father Marcelo Pérez Pérez, Human Rights defender in Chiapas, who was killed in San Cristóbal de las Casas in October 2024.

However, it was in the six -year period of Enrique Peña Nieto that the highest number of these crimes against clergy, with 19 murders was recorded.

Alberto Guerrero BaenaSecurity consultant, warns that these cases show not only the lack of a protection policy of religious and social leaders, but also that crime stopped “respecting” religious institutions.

Abel Barrerafounder and director of the Human Rights Center of the Tlachinollan mountain, in Guerrero, points out that people who carry out work in the community – such as activists and priests – face more risks because the criminal groups “monitor” their activities to take care that they do not affect their interests.

“It is the risk for people who carry out work in the community, because in each region there are groups that have monitored the population, who works with the communities, what they are doing, what are their (activities), they watch that it is not someone who is making ‘backward’ or to put their work at risk,” he warns.

The CCM warned since 2024 that most of these crimes remain unpunished, which aggravates this crisis. “The priests are still treated as second -category citizens,” the agency denounced in the report entitled Violence against priests, religious and institutions of the Catholic Church in Mexico .

“Why so much violence?”

“The attacks of armed groups of crime are unstoppable. Why so much violence? You cannot leave quietly,” said Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi in a column published in the Catholic Weekly from faith .

“Among us, the attacks of armed groups of common crime and organized, the violent manifestations of groups destroy everything in their path, (…) cause countless damage to thousands of people outside the problem,” he wrote.

In his reflection, he said that Extortion and fear are already everyday. “Small businesses have had to protect their facilities with bars and several locks, or close, because they cannot pay the quotas that extortionists demand,” he said.

For the cardinal, this spiral of violence has deeper roots, because “not only the government is responsible … it is, above all, the lack of education in human values ​​from the family, from school and the media. Ultimately, it is the lack of true faith in God,” he wrote.

The multimedial Catholic center documented in its 2024 report that Every 26 temples were desecrated or attacked. In 42% of these cases they were about sacred art robberies and 37% acts of religious or political hatred.

Since June 2022, Mexican bishops had already expressed concern In a pastoral letter.

“The crime has extended everywhere, disrupting everyday life, affecting productive activities, exerting pressure with extortion towards those who work honestly … and, most serious, manifesting with levels of inhuman cruelty in executions and massacres,” they denounced.

At the same time, they launched a collective cry: “Enough! We cannot be indifferent or oblivious to what is affecting us all. We are all Mexican, we all need to live in peace and concord.”

He National Dialogue for PeaceInitiative composed of the Mexican Episcopate Conference, the Episcopal Dimension for Los Layo, the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious and the Society of Jesus, regretted Tuesday the murder of Father Bertoldo and assured that it is a call to continue working to recover peace.

In the statement, he described the murder as “a wound that affects his family, the church and the communities he served”, and called the authorities to investigate the case, punish those responsible and strengthen security.