“I’m sorry, but we will take the bodies,” said the gunman, who opened fire, according to the Jesuit leader.
Her predecessor of the Roman Catholic Church Francis stylized yesterday Wednesday the murder of two Jesuits and a man who tried to save himself by finding refuge in their church in northern Mexico by a group of gunmenwhile the bodies of the priests, who were taken away by the criminals, were found.
The pope – the first to come from her ranks Fellowship of Jesusof the Jesuit Order – expressed his “sadness” and “shock” at the killings on Monday night of the “two Jesuit brothers” and a layman inside the temple in the village of Serokau, in the isolated mountains of Chihuahua.
“So many murders in Mexico. “I stand by the Catholic community affected by this tragedy with affection and prayer.” said the world-famous Jorge Bergoglio, insisting that “violence does not solve problems, it increases unnecessary suffering.”
The murders of priests Javier Campos Morales, 79, and Joaquin Cesar Mora Salazar, 81as well as his tourist guide, caused a strong emotional charge in Mexico.
THE Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador confirmed yesterday Wednesday that the alleged killer has been identified and added that a manhunt has been launched.
This is him thirty-year-old Jose Noriel Portillo, already wanted by the authorities for the murder of an American tourist in 2018according to reports in the Mexican media.
Last night the governor of Chihuahua, Marou Campos, announced that the bodies had been found. “We were able to locate and retrieve” the bodies of “Jesuit priests,” he said in a video he uploaded to social media sites.
The bodies were formally identified and it was announced that $ 250,000 offered for any information that would allow the suspect to be arrested.
THE Conference of Bishops of Mexico condemned this “tragedy” and called for a “faster search” and more security for church members in the country.
THE Company of Jesus He also called for “protection measures”, stressing that crimes of this nature are not “isolated”, but rather that “men and women are killed arbitrarily every day”.
Open van
“We believe that (…) the two Jesuits intervened,” he said the head of the Jesuit Order of Mexico, Luis Gerardo Moro Madrid, citing the testimony of a third priest who was there.
“The perpetrator shot the man who was stalking both Jesuits”, he added, during an interview with Radio Formula. All three died instantly.
“I’m sorry, but we will take the bodies,” said the gunman who opened fire, according to the head of the Jesuits. The three bodies were loaded into the body of an open van by other gunmen and covered with plastic. Then the team left.
Father Jorge Atilano Gonzalez, also a Jesuit, told Milenio television that the two priests knew the perpetrator, was a local, and intervened to try to calm him down.
“He wanted to confess” after killing them, added the priest Atilano Gonzalez, who also referred to the testimony of the third priest. “We think he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs because of his reaction.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has condemned the killings of two priests who “have been doing important social and pastoral work for over 20 and 30 years respectively” in the isolated area, trying to protect “the culture of the Raramouri community in all its dimensions “and” the environment “.
The Raramouri (or Taraumara) tribe settled in this inaccessible area to save themselves from the conquistadors, the Spanish conquerors.
President Lopez Obrador has acknowledged that several remote mountain communities in Chihuahua are experiencing problems due to the presence of “organized crime”.
According to experts, the mountains in Chihuahua are part of the drug trafficking route to the United States, which is controlled by various cartels.
Priests in some parts of Mexico try to act as mediators between residents and the perpetrators – or scoundrels – of organized crime.
About 30 priests have been killed in Mexico over the past decade, according to the non-governmental organization Centro Católico Multimedia.
Mexico has recorded, according to official figures, more than 340,000 murders and tens of thousands of disappearances since the so-called “war on drugs” was launched in December 2006, with the deployment of the armed forces inside the country.
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