Report: 80 priests murdered in Mexico over last three decades

Puebla, Mexico, Dec 11, 2024 / 16:30 pm

The Catholic Multimedia Center (CCM, by its Spanish acronym), an organization that tracks violence against members of the Church in Mexico, released a report Dec. 9 documenting that since 1990 some 80 Catholic priests have been murdered in the country.

The director of CCM, Father Omar Sotelo Aguilar, during a press conference in which he presented the report, noted that “as never before in the history of Mexico, violence has reached worrying levels, striking all sectors of society.”

Between 2018 and 2024, during the six-year term of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — founder of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA, by its Spanish acronym) party — homicides reached their highest level in modern Mexican history, totaling 199,621. The surge in violence took place during the implementation of López Obrador’s controversial policy of “abrazos, no balazos“ (“hugs, not bullets”) against organized crime.

The idea behind the strategy was to address the root causes of the violence with social programs rather than cracking down on the drug cartels through vigorous enforcement of the law. 

This context of violence and “the power vacuum and the dismantling of the rule of law,” the priest said, has forced pastoral workers, laypeople, priests, and ministers of other churches to assume “the role that the authorities have declined.”

“Someone must take responsibility for what the state has failed to do, due to inability or, worse still, by working in collusion with the criminal evildoers in a destructive combination: corruption and impunity,” Sotelo emphasized.

The CCM report also documents other forms of aggression that hinder the work of Catholic priests, such as threats, robberies, and acts of violence.

Among the high-profile murders, Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo, the archbishop of Guadalajara, was gunned down on May 24, 1993, in the Guadalajara airport. The crime has remained unsolved for 31 years. His successor, Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, alleged that the murder was orchestrated by state actors. 

The last six years

According to the CCM report, during López Obrador's six-year term, 10 priests were murdered, another 14 priests and bishops were attacked, a weekly average of 26 churches were attacked, desecrated, or assaulted, and nearly 900 cases of extortion and death threats against members of the Catholic Church were recorded.

The report found a decrease in homicides compared with previous six-year presidential terms. During the administration of Felipe Calderón (2006–2012) 17 Catholic priests were murdered, and during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012–2018) the figure rose to 19.

Priests

The first case recorded during the López Obrador government took place in October 2018 when Father Ícmar Arturo Orta Llamas of the Archdiocese of Tijuana in the state of Baja California was found dead inside his vehicle with “gunshot wounds.”

In 2019, Father José Martín Guzmán Vega, a priest of the Diocese of Matamoros in Tamaulipas state, was also murdered. According to the CCM report, he was making “tough and severe denunciations of the state government.”

The year 2021 was especially tragic. Father Juan Antonio Orozco Alvarado, a Franciscan priest, died in a “crossfire” during a confrontation between cartels on the border of the states of Durango and Zacatecas. Father Gumersindo Cortés González and Father José Guadalupe Popoca Soto were murdered in Guanajuato and Morelos states, respectively.

In 2022, there were also three cases of priests being murdered. Among them was Father José Guadalupe Rivas of the Archdiocese of Tijuana, who was a migrant advocate.

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That same year, one of the most emblematic cases of violence against priests took place: the Jesuits Javier Campos Morales and Joaquín César Mora Salazar were murdered inside their church in an Indigenous community in the state of Chihuahua. The priests tried to protect a man who was seeking refuge in the church in the town of Cerocahui located in the Sierra Tarahumara while he was being pursued by an armed criminal.

The violence continued in 2023 with the murder of Father José Angulo Fonseca of the clergy of the Diocese of San Juan de los Lagos in Jalisco state, at the hands of his own brother, and of Father Javier García Villafaña of the Archdiocese of Morelia, who was shot to death while driving in the state of Michoacán.

Seminarians

In 2022, seminarian José Dorian Piña, who was in his third year of theology at the seminary of the state of Zacatecas, was murdered when criminals opened fire on his family while trying to steal their car.

Attacks on bishops and priests

The CCM documented at least six attacks against bishops. Among them, the case of the archbishop of Durango, Faustino Armendáriz Jiménez, stands out. In 2023, he was attacked by an 80-year-old man with a knife. In another incident, armed men broke into a rectory in the Diocese of Cancún-Chetumal in 2024, victimizing several clerics. In all, seven serious attacks on priests were recorded.

Churches as targets of extortion

According to the report, approximately 26 sacred sites each week, “from small chapels and oratories to large churches or premises all across the Church, are desecrated by the commission of high-impact crimes, minor crimes, sacrileges, or profanations.”

The report also highlights that, of the attacks on religious sites, 42% of them are committed by “organized crime professionals specialized in the theft of sacred art.” Another 37% were carried out by groups that “attack for various motives of religious intolerance and discrimination,” while 21% of the attacks were carried out by “criminals specializing in the quick theft of religious objects on a smaller scale and of little value.”

As for extortion and fraud, the report highlights that these practices “are on the rise.” However, it warns that “the unreported figure is higher than the complaints filed,” which means that “there is no clear picture of the crime figures and which dioceses have the highest prevalence of these crimes.”

This information comes from complaints covered in the news media and on social media. However, the exact figure for financial losses is still unknown.

Outlook

Sotelo shared with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, his concern about the trend of murders in the country, warning that “there may be more bloodshed, there may be more incidents of violence.”

He pointed out that, during the time that President Claudia Sheinbaum’s new administration has been in place, since Oct. 1, “we have seen massacres occur in various places in the country” targeting civilians. In addition, he noted that “several priests in Mexico are being extorted or facing death threats,” which makes it clear that the situation “is latent.”

Although he expressed his hope that this wouldn’t happen, he lamented that “the trends are, unfortunately, unfavorable.”

“That’s not what we want; I hope we’re wrong. Believe me, we would really like to be wrong about this situation,” the Mexican priest said.

A few weeks after the beginning of the Sheinbaum administration, on Oct. 20, the murder of Father Marcelo Pérez was reported. Pérez was shot by two men after he had celebrated Mass. The priest was known for being a staunch defender of the Indigenous people of Chiapas and a “tireless apostle of peace.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.