The Church, which has suffered the murder of at least 50 of its members in the last three six-year terms, remains in the crosshairs of crime. An armed group harassed on Wednesday in Chiapas the vehicle in which Father Filiberto Velázquez was traveling, one of the priests who has negotiated with the cartels in Guerrero for the cessation of violence. The persecution against the priest occurred in a “persistent and threatening” manner, according to a statement from the Minerva Bello Human Rights Center, which Velázquez directs.
The priest stopped to eat this morning on his way back from Chiapas after having met with a group of normalistas from Mactumatzá, a community on the outskirts of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, and with a group of migrants. After continuing on his way, a group of armed men followed his vehicle and signaled him to stop. “The security team realized the risk of stopping and decided not to do so and try to reach the checkpoint as soon as possible,” the statement explained, which then insisted on the intensity of the pursuit, despite there having been no shots. The armed group turned around as soon as Velázquez’s car reached the checkpoint.
The Minerva Bello Center claims that during the harassment, the priest’s team has asked for help at two security force checkpoints. “Unfortunately, neither the National Guard nor the Army have provided assistance,” the statement says. That is why in the message the human rights institution has asked the three levels of government to “guarantee the physical and psychological integrity” of Velázquez.
The director of Minerva Bello, who is involved in the defense of human rights in conflict zones, was in Chiapas to sponsor a generation of students from the Mactumatzá Rural Teachers’ College. The southern region has been shaken in recent months by an unprecedented wave of violence. The poorest state in Mexico has suffered the arrival of the two most powerful cartels in the country, the Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels, which are trying to take control of the border with Guatemala for its resources and migrant trafficking.
The attack is the second that Father Filiberto has suffered in less than a year. In October 2023, the truck in which he was traveling was shot at on the highway between Tixtla and Chilpancingo, in the state of Guerrero, where Velázquez lives. There, together with other priests, they negotiated at the beginning of the year with the leaders of the criminal groups present in the region — the Ardillos, the Tlacos and the Familia Michoacana — a truce in the violence, which was increasing with murders and constant fighting. “It is an initiative of these groups and this sets a precedent even for politicians, because if the bad guys know how to come to an agreement and stop fighting and attacking each other for the good of the people, I think that politicians should also do the same,” Velázquez said in an interview with journalist Jaime Núñez after the agreement between the Tlacos and the Familia Michoacana to stop the fighting between them.
The Church has played an active role in trying to stop the violence in Mexico. Freed from political responsibilities, it has been able to sit at the table with the leaders of criminal groups to agree on truces and ceasefires to prevent the conflicts from affecting the civilian population. However, this position has had a cost. At least 50 priests have been killed in the last 18 years, according to the Catholic Multimedia Center.
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