Last month in the state of Michoacán, a Roman Catholic priest by the name of Javier Garcia Villafaña was murdered while he was traveling to celebrate Mass in Capacho. He was the ninth Catholic priest killed in the country during the current political administration. The day before Villafaña’s death, Archbishop Faustino Armendáriz Jiménez of Durango was almost killed by stabbing at the end of Mass in his cathedral.
These egregious attacks are only the most recent in what has become a trend that demands focused attention from the Mexican government, international bodies and neighboring countries.
Violence against religious clergy in Mexico and across Latin America is far more severe than most recognize. More religious leaders have been killed in Latin America in the last decade than anywhere else in the world. The number of priests killed in Mexico in the last 15 years is even higher than in Nigeria, the African country renowned for violent attacks against Christians. And the figures for Colombia and Brazil tail only slightly behind that for Mexico.
The severity of the problem began to come into focus in 2021, and last year, a long-overdue international spotlight shone briefly on Mexico after the killing of two Jesuit priests in the state of Chihuahua. The murders were widely reported by different media outlets, with Pope Francis and U.S. lawmakers taking a stand to condemn them.
But the violence has continued unabated over the past year. Last May, another priest was killed close to the U.S.-Mexico border. This February, an evangelical pastor was shot to death by three men while conducting a Christian service in a church. In total, from 2012 through 2022, at least 34 Catholic priests and another 34 evangelical leaders were murdered.
Most of those murders remain unsolved, and some religious leaders have lost faith in Mexican authorities’ response to the problem. As Rev. Alfredo Gallegos, aka “Father Pistolas,” put it in a sermon, “The cartel gunmen come, they take the livestock, they screw your wife and daughter, and you do nothing,” so “get yourself a gun, the government can go to hell.”
That response is reflective of the descent of some regions of Mexico into cartel-dominated ungovernable areas characterized by impunity and the lack of the Rule of Law. Cartels have made clergy a special target for violence, according to the U.S. State Department’s assessment, “because of their denunciation of criminal activities and because communities view them as moral authority figures.”
Religious figures, who often altruistically serve the most disadvantaged communities in vulnerable areas, can be agents of stability for their communities and thus obstacles to gangs’ “quest for control.” Some gangs make this struggle religious: The “Los Zetas” drug cartel, for example, is known for performing “holy death” ritualistic killings and for calling for a “holy war” against Catholics as part of their own blood “religious” sacrifices and ceremonies.
Ending this gang-fueled violence may well be beyond the capacity of the Mexican government in the immediate future — but acknowledging the problem has to be the first step toward finding a long-term solution. Last year, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador claimed to be ignorant about the extortion, violence and murder plaguing Mexican churches, even going so far as to criticize Mexican bishops who called out his government’s failed response to the deadly attacks against priests.
Unless and until the Mexican government squarely faces the issue, other bodies need to sound the alarm.
Most obvious among these would be the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which requires member states (including Mexico) to “prevent, investigate and punish any violation of the rights recognized by the convention.” The court has applied this standard regularly to member states deficient in the investigation and prosecution of tortures, murders, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings. As of yet, attacks on religious leaders in Mexico have drawn only isolated statements.
The United States and Mexico’s other neighbors should also speak up and, when feasible, offer to assist. Last year, after the killings of the two Jesuit priests, members of Congress called on President Biden to work closely with the Mexican government to ensure justice. The Biden administration, so far, has not responded to that specific request or to the broader situation.
The violence against religious leaders in Mexico is not only unconscionable in itself but also a canary in the coal mine signaling that significant regions of Latin America are becoming hotbeds for religious persecution, as is already the case in Nicaragua. Those interested in protecting human rights across the region should be monitoring the situation closely and pressuring Mexico to put an end to the violence and impunity.
Kelsey Zorzi is an international human rights lawyer who serves as vice president of the U.N.’s NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief and director of advocacy for global religious freedom for ADF International. Her writings have appeared in several outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Hill and Newsweek. Twitter: @KelseyZorzi.
Julio Pohl Garcia Prieto serves as legal counsel for Latin America with ADF International where he monitors the Latin American region and the Organization of American States.