AMERICA/MEXICO - The country is bleeding to death: not even a minimum of security is guaranteed the authorities are powerless

Monday, 12 June 2017 poverty politics corruption local churches

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MEXICO

2023-09-29
The bishops of Tierra Caliente and Chiapas: violence and insecurity are destroying the Mexican people

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The Archbishop of Monterrey: the Catholic Church has the task of convincing that the path of peace is the path of God

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Indigenous peoples: Catholic Church strives for inculturation

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Migrant children: roughly one in every four travelers is an infant

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Auxiliary bishop Villareal: "Meetings like WYD bring young people closer to Christ"

2023-06-19
Murders, violence, kidnappings: the population lives in conditions of total insecurity

Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) – “In recent weeks, in various different parts of the country, violence has not subsided. In Tamaulipas fighting between drug cartels continues. Early last week Reynosa Prison was turned into a war zone with the authorities out of control; in Veracruz, between January and April this year, there were reports of no less than 620 violent executions; and daily murders in Guerrero continue in total impunity; Oaxaca is in the same situation with helpless civilians at the mercy of terror gangs. In addition, citizens suffer intimidation in a situation of absolute uncertainty and evident powerlessness on the part of the state”. This was affirmed in the editorial of a magazine issued by the Mexican diocese of Desde la Fe.
The statement sent to Fides, affirms that the reported events demonstrate total lack of security for the people and complete powerlessness of the authorities to deal with corruption at all levels. With the authorities unable to tackle the situation, certain individuals with moral authority engage in face to face encounters to agree on a few clauses of peace and security for at least some sectors respected in the past. “On 28 May, Bishop Salvador Rangel Mendoza of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, openly admitted to having come to some agreement regarding matters which the authorities are no longer able to control, for example security. Not even the clergy there and in other parts of the country escape this terror … Many priests in the remotest areas of the country, being soft targets, are pressured by organized crime gangs and hampered in their mission of evangelisation, warned, under life threat, not even speak of ‘drug trafficking’”.
The editorial closes with the words “the country is being bled to death”. “The fact is that Mexico lives in conditions of extreme poverty, a situation which provides seedbeds for crime and corruption. Action on the part of the clergy to end this impasse is a reaction to the present institutional vacuum, even at the cost of the lives of persons shouldering tasks which fall to others”. While energy and resources are consumed in political campaigns and support for political parties, violence spreads metastasis in the poorest part of the country, endangering the very future of Mexico. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 12/6/2017)