Third priest slain in region of Mexico’s Guerrero state dominated by drug cartels
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Version 0 of 1. MEXICO CITY — A missing priest was found dead, a gunshot wound to the head, in an area of southern Guerrero state dominated by drug cartels, his diocese said Friday. The slaying of the Rev. Gregorio Lopez Gorostieta is the latest in series of abductions, attacks and highway robberies against Roman Catholic clerics in the region. He is the third Catholic priest to have been killed this year, and the first to die since the federal government launched a special, stepped-up security operation in the area following the disappearance of 43 teachers’ college students three months ago. The motive in Lopez Gorostieta’s killing remains unclear; Bishop Maximino Martinez said a group had been seen lurking around the seminary where the priest taught on the outskirts of Ciudad Altamirano, Guerrero, on Sunday and Monday. Lopez Gorostieta was apparently kidnapped by the gang early Monday; his truck was found abandoned two days later. “This is another priest added to those who have died for their love of Christ,” the bishop said. “Enough already of so much pain, of so many murders. Enough already of so much crime. Enough extortions.” That was an apparent reference to the “protection payments” that the local drug gang, the Knights Templar, demand from business owners in Ciudad Altamirano. The Rev. Jesus Mendoza Zaragoza said there appears to be little likelihood authorities will find the killers, because they haven’t done so in past cases. In September, the battered body of the Rev. Ascension Acuna Osorio was found floating in the Balsas River, near Ciudad Altamirano. Guerrero state prosecutors said the priest’s body had head wounds, but it was unclear whether they were caused by the body being dragged by the current, or whether he had been killed before being dumped in the river. Martinez said authorities never offered more information on the investigation into his death. San Miguel Totolapan is an area dominated by the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel, which has been implicated in the mass killing of 43 students in September in the nearby city of Iguala. Authorities also haven’t cleared up the killing of a Ugandan priest whose body was found in a clandestine grave in a nearby Guerrero diocese in November. The Rev. John Ssenyondo, 55, had been kidnapped about six months earlier. His body was later identified as one of 13 found in a grave discovered Nov. 2 in the town of Ocotitlan. — Associated Press |