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Two Jesuit priests were murdered this Monday in their temple in the community of Cerocahui, in the Sierra Tarahumara region, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua (north), the Society of Jesus denounced on Tuesday.
"We denounce the murder of our brothers Javier Campos Morales and Joaquín César Mora Salazar," the religious order said in a statement.
"We condemn these violent acts,
we demand justice and the recovery of the bodies of our brothers, who were taken from the temple
by armed people," he added.
The president of
Mexico
, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has confirmed the crime, which he has said occurred when armed men entered the town's church chasing another person who, apparently, was trying to take refuge in the temple.
"They assassinated him, the priests came out and apparently they were also assassinated. We are now attending to this matter," added the president in his daily press conference.
López Obrador has acknowledged that several
municipalities in the Sierra de Chihuahua suffer from "a significant presence of organized crime
. "
drug trafficking
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"It seems that there is already information about the possible perpetrators of these crimes," the president reported.
According to experts, the Sierra de
Chihuahua is an important route for the transfer of drugs to the United States
, which is why it is violently disputed by drug
cartels
.
The Mexican Province of the Society of Jesus has demanded the adoption of "protective measures to safeguard the lives" of the Jesuits, nuns, laity and the entire community of Cerocahui.
In addition, he has denounced that these crimes are not "isolated" acts, since "every day men and women are arbitrarily deprived of life."
"The Sierra Tarahumara, like many other regions of the country, faces conditions of violence and oblivion that have not been reversed," explained the Society of Jesus.
The Mexican Episcopate Conference has also condemned the "tragedy" and has demanded "a prompt investigation", as well as security for the country's priests.
In Mexico, members of various religious orders must act as defenders and mediators between the inhabitants of their communities and the hitmen of organized crime who operate there.
In states like Michoacán (west) or Guerrero (south) some of them have opted for dialogue with drug traffickers as a way to pacify these regions, usually impoverished and with little state presence.
Some 30 priests have been murdered in the last decade in Mexico, according to the NGO Centro Católico Multimedial.
Mexico is being shaken by a wave of violence linked to drug trafficking in the midst of which more than 340,000 people have been killed
since December 2006
, according to official figures.
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