Report: In just over three decades, 80 priests were murdered in Mexico

The Catholic Multimedia Center (CCM), an organization that records violence against members of the Church in Mexico, reported that since 1990, 80 priests have been murdered in the country.

Father Omar Sotelo Aguilar, director of the CCM, presented this figure in a report released this December 9th. During his speech at the press conference, he noted that “like never before in the history of Mexico, violence has reached worrying levels that affect all social sectors.”

The six-year term of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024)—founder of the National Regeneration Movement party (MORENA)— reached the level of homicides highest in the modern history of Mexico, adding a total of 199,621. This rise in violence occurred within the framework of the controversial government policy of “hugs, not bullets” against organized crime.

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

“Someone must assume what the State has stopped doing, due to inability or, worse still, because of living in collusion with the doers of evil and crime in a destructive binomial: corruption and impunity,” said Father Sotelo.

The CCM report also exposes other attacks that make the work of Catholic priests difficult, such as threats, robberies and acts of violence.

One of the most high-profile homicides was that of Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo, Archbishop of Guadalajara, committed on May 24, 1993 at the airport in the capital of the state of Jalisco. The crime has not been solved 31 years later. His successor, Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, assured that it was a “state homicide.”

Last six years

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

Regarding homicides, a decrease is observed compared to previous six-year periods. During the government 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.

The first of the cases that occurred during the López Obrador government occurred in October 2018, when Father Ícmar Arturo Orta Llamas, of the Archdiocese of Tijuana, in the state of Baja California, was found dead with “gunshot wounds.” ” inside your vehicle. In 2019, Father José Martín Guzmán Vega, priest of the Diocese of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, was also murdered, who, according to the CCM report, made “complaints against the state government that were harsh and severe.”

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, respectively.

In 2022, three cases of murders of priests were also recorded. Among them, Father José Guadalupe Rivas, defender of migrants from the Archdiocese of Tijuana.

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 temple in an indigenous community in the state of Chihuahua. The religious tried to protect a man who was seeking refuge in the Cerocahui temple, located in the Sierra Tarahumara, while he was chased 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, at the hands of his own brother; and Father Javier García Villafaña, from the Archdiocese of Morelia, who was attacked with firearms while driving in the state of Michoacán.

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

The CCM documented at least six attacks against bishops. Among them, the case of the Archbishop of Durango, Faustino Armendáriz Jiménez, stands out, who in 2023 was attacked by a subject with a knife. Also mentioned is the assault on the priestly house of the Diocese of Cancún-Chetumal in 2024, where several clerics were victims of this attack.

As for the priests, seven serious attacks were recorded.

Churches were targets of extortion

According to the report, each week approximately 26 sacred precincts, “from hermitages and oratories to large temples or enclosures of the entire Church, are desecrated by the commission of high-impact crimes, minor crimes and sacrilege or desecration.”

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.” 37% were made of groups that “attack for various reasons of intolerance and

religious discrimination”, while 21% of the attacks are carried out “by criminals dedicated to the express theft of religious objects on a smaller scale and of little value.”

Regarding extortion and fraud, the report highlights that these practices “are increasing.” However, he warns that “the black figure is higher than the complaints filed,” which means that “there is no clear picture of the crime figures and which are the dioceses with the highest prevalence of these crimes.”

This information comes from complaints in the media and social networks. However, the exact figure on economic losses is still unknown.

What is the outlook for Claudia Sheinbaum’s new government?

Father Sotelo shared with ACI Prensa his concern about the trend of murders in the country, warning that “there may be more blood, there may be more situations of violence.”

He pointed out that, during the time of the new administration of Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office on October 1, “we have seen how massacres have occurred in various places in the country” against civilians. In addition, he highlighted that there are “extortions and death threats against several priests in Mexico,” which makes it clear that the situation “is latent.”

Although he expressed hope that this would not happen, he lamented that “the trends are, unfortunately, unfavorable.”

“We don’t want it, I hope we are wrong. Believe me, we are willing to make mistakes in this situation,” said the Mexican priest.

A few days after the start of Sheinbaum’s administration, on October 20, the murder of Father Marcelo Pérez was recorded, who was shot dead by two men after having celebrated Mass. The priest was known for being a firm defender of the indigenous people of Chiapas and was recognized as a “tireless apostle of peace.”