AMERICA/MEXICO - 2 migrants who had denounced extortion have been killed, the Church asks for protection

Monday, 3 June 2013

San Cristobal de las Casas (Agenzia Fides) - The killing of two Honduran immigrant women on 30 May in Chiapas, in southern Mexico, was a revenge on behalf of a gang dedicated to extortion of undocumented immigrants that the two victims had just denounced.
This was revealed yesterday, Sunday, June 2 by the Bishop of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mgr. Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel.
After Sunday Mass, Mgr. Arizmendi told the press that the fact that Mexico "does not provide protection to those traveling" along the Mexican territory is "an embarrassment at an international level". "In their countries of origin, particularly in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, these people do not find ways to improve their economic conditions, also because they suffer the violence of the maras (gangs), even though they know the dangers they are exposed to, they try to cross Mexico to reach the United States," said the Bishop.
In the note sent to Fides, Mgr. Arizmendi said that the Church, on countless occasions, denounced the situation of immigrants in the area of Palenque, in Chiapas, "they are attacked by criminal gangs who extort their money, beat them and, in the worst cases, kill them." Unfortunately, the Bishop added, the recent events show that "the necessary measures to prevent crimes or at least reduce them have not been adopted." The Catholic Church, several times told soldiers to accompany the train to protect immigrants. "In the case of Suleida Raudales Flores and Cynthia Carolina Cruz Bonilla, murdered on 30 May, they had reported the extortion of which they were victims two days before. Somehow the gang was informed, identified them, stopped the train and killed them" said the Bishop. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 03/06/2013)


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