Breathe
By Pamela Cerdeira
Marcelo Pérez was an indigenous parish priest and activist. His cause was the people, and those who might feel uncomfortable with him were many: caciques, politicians, criminals, settlers in dispute with other settlers. His life was in danger and that was no secret, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had asked years ago that he be granted protection. It was known that his life had a price, between $100,000 and $150,000. Animal Politico
This text is about the role that the church and its members have played in the attempt to pacify Mexico. Of the Jesuit priests murdered in 2022 in Cerocahui: "We didn't have a sense of risk before because somehow we understood that priests as well as doctors, as well as teachers, as other people who are going to do good for society, were respected in quotes by these criminal organizations." He told the BBC Father Esteban Cornejo after his companions died, despite this, he decided to stay.
Nor can we forget the time when it was members of the church who achieved a negotiation between the Ardillos and the Tlacos who were fighting in Chilpancingo over public transportation permits. In this dystopia called Mexico, what was surprising was not the negotiating role of the clergy, but rather the abandonment and negligence of the authorities who accepted without further ado that transportation would be left in the hands of the criminals. The church was at least there to prevent them from killing each other during the dispute.
While the federal government disarms the municipal police in Culiacan, the priests remain in their parishes confessing to the victims and the families of the perpetrators.
It is heartbreaking and desperate to read the chronicles in the newspapers of how the people who encountered the murder of Marcelo Perez began to pray, it is heartbreaking and painful to hear how rage was transformed into compassionate discourse.
I spoke with Father José Filiberto Velázquez Florencio, to whom it would be idle to ask if he expected the authorities to resolve the case, or if he trusted in justice. It is clear that faith in the system is exhausted, one would have to be too naïve, or political to say that one expects something from it. What does one believe in then when it is clear that nothing can be expected from the authorities: "We have faith that the criminals will repent," he told me.
And it is curious that the system is so rotten that it is only the worst, from whom something, even a little bit of goodness, can be expected. Faith can only be in the criminals.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
Comments ()