Still hurting from violence, Mexican priests and families hope for peace ahead of elections
Ahead of upcoming presidential elections, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and frontrunner Claudia Sheinbaum have strongly rejected any criticism of the governing party's security strategies
By MarÍA Teresa HernÁNdez
Published - May 28, 2024, 01:13 AM ET
Last Updated - May 28, 2024, 01:13 AM EDT
CHIHUAHUA, México (AP) — José Portillo Gil, the gang leader known as “El Chueco” — the Crooked One — lowered his gun. The Rev. Jesús Reyes then spoke what he feared might be his final words: Please, don’t take my brothers’ corpses away.
Next to him, at the altar of his church in northern Mexico, Jesuit priests Javier Campos, 79, and Joaquín Mora, 80, lay in a pool of blood.
“I could almost feel the bullets going through my body,” said Reyes, who survived the attack without being shot.
The killings took place in Cerocahui in mid-2022, but the sorrow over the crimes has not diminished in the communities nestled in the remote Tarahumara mountains. Nor have Catholic leaders’ demands for peace abated.
