The murder of two Jesuit priests and a man inside a church in the community of Cerocahui, municipality of Urique, in the Sierra Tarahumara in Chihuahua, has generated rejection from the religious community and society, who demand that justice be done and end to the violence that exists in that area of the country.
According to local authorities, the two Jesuit priests, Javier Campos Morales known as el Gallo and César Mora Salazar el Morita, were killed along with Pedro Eliodoro Palma, who worked as a tour guide in the area, after an armed man shot outside the church.
The State Attorney General’s Office (FGE), the attack occurred around 6:00 p.m. last Monday, when the parish priests tried to protect a person who was being chased by at least one other armed man.
The whereabouts of the victims’ bodies are unknown at this time.
Local media versions point to José Noriel Portillo, alias el Chueco, leader of Los Salazares in the municipality of Urique, and who operates in the Sierra Tarahumara region, as responsible for the triple homicide. This criminal group is the main operator of the Sinaloa Cartel in the area.
The National Security Cabinet and the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC) reported that the person responsible for the crimes has already been identified and the investigation continues to find his whereabouts.
Bishops of Chihuahua lamented the murder of the two Jesuit priests inside the parish church; “We cannot remain silent, we must raise our voices for this and all the violent events we are experiencing,” they said.
On the other hand, Amnesty International also condemned the events and called on the Chihuahua government to recover the bodies of the religious and investigate what happened.
The Office in Mexico of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-DH) joined the condemnation, through Guillermo Fernández-Maldonado, representative in Mexico, who stated that “the murder of these two renowned priests recalls the situation of extreme violence and vulnerability faced by the communities of the Sierra Tarahumara in Chihuahua”.