“I don’t think that an armed gang can have something against us, against the Church. I don’t want to think that, but this is the fact,” he said.
After noting that June 21 will mark one year since the murder of the Jesuit priests Javier Campos Morales and Joaquín César Mora Salazar, Urzúa lamented that in the Diocese of Tarahumara in Chihuahua they are “in an area where criminal presence is permanent.”
“It’s sad what we are experiencing, where we are living. It is not something passing, it’s something permanent,” he said.
Mexico is experiencing the most violent period in its modern history, and the homicide figures for the current six-year term of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador have surpassed those of his predecessors, totaling more than 156,136 as of May 31.
López Obrador acknowledged the historic record in his morning press conference on June 1 but attributed it to “a poor security legacy” from previous governments.
Through April in the state of Chihuahua, 567 first-degree murders were recorded.
From Jan. 1 to June 5 of this year, 11,475 homicides have been recorded throughout Mexico.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.