When they arrived, they found a local tour guide bleeding on the altar. Above him stood the local boss of the country’s most powerful organized crime group, the Sinaloa cartel. One of the priests began to administer last rites to the wounded man, but the gunman shot him before turning and opening fire on the second priest. By then a third priest had arrived. The drug lord, known as “El Chueco” or “The Crooked One”, confessed his sins to him and then took the bodies away in a truck. News of the murders sparked outrage across Mexico and the world. Pope Francis deplored the high number of homicides in the country. Mexico’s Catholic dioceses have asked the government to review its security strategy in light of the killings. The Mexican government promised swift justice, but three weeks after the murders, El Chueco remains at large. The brazen murders of the Jesuits have highlighted the growing violence in rural Mexico and the dangers the country’s Catholic priests face every day as they tend to their communities. Homicides have increased in rural areas across the country as criminal gangs wage wars to seize larger swaths of territory. And the priests are caught in the crossfire. They have few security guarantees in these areas and often walk a fine line between speaking out in defense of their parish and avoiding the deadly wrath of powerful criminal groups that operate openly in defiance of the authorities. El Chueco, José Noriel Portillo Gil, also long enjoyed such impunity. In 2018, Portillo shot and killed an American tourist, prompting state officials to vow that they would stop at nothing to arrest him. Instead, the drug trafficker continued to run his cartel, terrorize residents and communicate openly with local mayors and police chiefs, according to a source familiar with him. This level of impunity is not new for priests working in rural areas throughout Mexico. Eighty percent of the murders, disappearances and extortions of priests have gone unsolved, according to a December report by the Catholic Media Center. The report found that extortion and attacks on churches have increased in the three years since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office. The leader, popularly known as Amlo, came to power promising “hugs not bullets”, which he promised would reduce the country’s rising murder rates. Instead, experts say, the approach has encouraged criminal groups to become more violent and expand territorial control across the country. Quick guide
Mexico’s evolving war on drugs
projection Calderon sends an army Mexico’s “war on drugs” began in late 2006 when then-president Felipe Calderon ordered thousands of soldiers into the streets in response to an outbreak of horrific violence in his home state of Michoacán. Calderon hoped to crush the drug cartels with his heavily militarized offensive, but the approach was counterproductive and took a devastating human toll. As the Mexican army went on the offensive, the body count soared and tens of thousands were forced from their homes, disappeared or were killed. Kingpin Strategy At the same time, Calderón also began to pursue the so-called “king strategy” in which the authorities tried to decapitate the cartels by targeting their leaders. This policy led to some high-profile scalps – notably Arturo Beltrán Leyva who was murdered by Mexican marines in 2009 – but also did little to bring peace. In fact, many believe such tactics only served to pulverize the organized crime world, creating even more violence as new, less predictable factions fought for their piece of the pie. Under Calderon’s successor, Enrique Peña Nieto, the government’s anti-crime rhetoric has softened as Mexico has sought to shed its reputation as home to some of the world’s deadliest mafia groups. But Calderon’s policies have largely survived, with authorities targeting prominent cartel leaders such as Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán of Sinaloa. When “El Chapo” was captured in early 2016, Mexico’s president boasted: “Mission accomplished.” But the violence continued. By the time Peña Nieto left office in 2018, Mexico had suffered another record year of murders, with nearly 36,000 people killed. “Hugs Not Bullets” Left-wing populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador took power in December, promising a dramatic change in tactics. López Obrador, or Amlo as most call him, has vowed to attack the social roots of crime, offering job training to more than 2.3 million disadvantaged youths at risk of being ensnared by the cartels. “It will be virtually impossible to achieve peace without justice and [social] prosperity,” Amlo said, promising to reduce the killing rate from an average of 89 murders a day under the “hugs not bullets” doctrine. Amlo also pledged to preside over daily security meetings at 6am and create a 60,000-strong “National Guard”. But these measures have yet to pay off, with the new security force used mainly to hunt Central American migrants. Mexico now averages about 96 murders a day, with nearly 29,000 people killed since Amlo took office. Thanks for your response. Last year, three priests were murdered in Mexico. One was kidnapped, shot and left on the side of a road in the state of Guanajuato. Another was killed in Durango state after being caught in the crossfire of a gun battle on the way to his church. A third was beaten to death inside his church in Morelos state in September. When prominent clerics called for a change in security strategy after the latest killings in Chihuahua, López Obrador demurred. “What do the priests want?” he asked at a morning press conference, responding to requests. “That we solve problems with violence?” Father Luis Gerardo Moro, Jesuit leader in Mexico, said his community did not believe in violence. “We demand a minimum of respect for humanity,” he said, responding to the president’s remarks. A member of the Mexican military stands guard outside the church where the Jesuit priests were killed. Photo: Reuters Meanwhile, homicides have skyrocketed across rural Mexico. And the cartels have become increasingly bold. Three weeks ago, in the state of Chiapas, cellphone videos showed dozens of heavily armed men occupying the streets of San Cristóbal de Las Casas in a blatant show of force in the town. In the state of Guerrero, seven members of a family were gunned down in their home earlier this week. And just over two weeks ago, gunmen blocked roads and torched buses in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, after their leader was arrested. Catholic priests are often at the forefront of these wars between criminal gangs. For Father Carlos Aurelio Ramírez Moreno, in Michoacán state, that means avoiding checkpoints controlled by the Jalisco New Generation cartel, Mexico’s most feared organized crime group, which is trying to take over the city where Ramírez works. The city has taken up arms to defend itself against the cartel, and Ramírez has encouraged them – putting him in the crosshairs of Jalisco gunmen. He said his flock had no choice but to defend themselves because the government would not come to their aid. “If they drop their weapons, they will be vulnerable,” Ramírez said. “They know they can’t depend on the government.” Cartel spies are tracking him, and less than a month ago, a gunman shot at his vehicle as he left town. He escaped harm and remains undaunted, he said. He reported the attack to the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Workers and Journalists, which is responsible for his protection, but expects little help from López Obrador’s government. “This leader is a [Pontius] Pilate washing his hands,” Ramirez said. “He does not have the character to implement the rule of law.”
