LARRAÍNZAR – SAN ANDRÉS LARRÁINZAR, MéMore than a thousand people paid tribute on Monday in his hometown to Father Marcelo Pérez, the Catholic priest, defender of indigenous people and peasants murdered the day before at the end of a mass in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.
Although he had been suffering threats for almost a decade and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) had asked Mexico for protection measures since 2015, Pérez was shot on Sunday morning in San Cristóbal de las Casas, by two individuals on a motorcycle who fired to your vehicle.
The crowd that wanted to say goodbye to the priest was so large that there was no room in the church of San Andrés Larráinzar – a small town in the mountains, 50 km from where he was murdered – and the bilingual mass, in Tsotsil and Spanish, had to be celebrated in the central park. The funeral will take place on Tuesday.
Father Marcelo Pérez, 50 years old, was a Tsotsil indigenous man recognized for mediating social, indigenous, peasant and political conflicts in municipalities plagued by all types of disputes and acts of violence by organized crime. He never hesitated to criticize the authorities’ lack of action. In 2016, he was Pope Francis’ translator during his visit to Chiapas, when the pontiff made the use of indigenous languages official in masses.
On Monday, President Claudia Sheinbaum said that the Secretary of Security, Omar García Harfuch, was in contact with Governor Rutilio Escandón – also from the ruling Morena party – to analyze whether the federal prosecutor’s office should attract the investigation and added that the government is also coordinating with the ecclesiastical authorities “to advance the investigation so that this crime does not go unpunished.”
As he explained, in Chiapas they are working on both social intervention and intelligence work. But, for now, violence has not stopped growing in the poorest state of Mexico, as is happening in other parts of the country.
From the Catholic Church, the call was forceful. “We hope that there will be decisive action to restore peace in the country and of course in Chiapas,” said the bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Rodrigo Aguilar.
Aguilar and Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, who ordained Pérez as a priest 22 years ago, spoke to the press after the mass, while friends and followers of the religious approached the open coffin to pay their respects, amid music and many tears.
“This is a reflection of the entire country… don’t say that Mexico is fine, please,” said the cardinal. “This strategy has not worked,” he added in reference to the government’s security policy.
He also asked the authorities “to see an intelligent way to disarm these armed groups here and there, not to wait for people to file complaints; “People are not going to make complaints because they are risking their lives,” said the cardinal.
The UN, the IACHR and numerous human rights groups demanded an independent and exhaustive investigation of the homicide. The Catholic Church, in a new statement, asked to reach not only the material authors of the murder but also the intellectuals and urged an end to the criminalization of priests and human rights defenders.
Among the most emotional speeches after the mass, the one by the Las Abejas collective stood out, given by Sebastian Pérez Vázquez, a survivor of the massacre of the town of Acteal, which occurred in 1997, in which 45 indigenous people were murdered inside the church.
Pérez Vázquez recalled that the priest told them that he could not allow himself to be afraid of the threats because they had to continue working for justice and peace. In addition, he described it as “shameful” that the government could not protect him.
“The Mexican government was opaque and acquiescent in addressing the root causes of the threats against it,” also denounced the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center, one of the most nationally and internationally recognized local NGOs. “Far from his protection, the Mexican State criminalized him, encouraged accusations against him and judicially persecuted him through an arrest warrant.”
The homicide occurred in the midst of an escalation of insecurity in which, to the political, social and agrarian violence that had existed for decades in Chiapas, a couple of years ago the fight between the Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels for control was added. of the border with Guatemala and all the illicit trafficking of drugs, weapons and, above all, migrants.
Father Pérez and the Catholic Church in the area did not cease to denounce the increase in murders, disappearances, intimidations and displacements of civilians in many municipalities where the cartels threaten the residents or use them as human shields in the face of the passivity of the armed forces. . In July, More than 500 Mexicans fled to take refuge in Guatemala for this reason.
“Chiapas is a time bomb,” Pérez said a little over a month ago in one of the last peace demonstrations organized to demand action from the authorities.
The UN Office for Human Rights indicated that Pérez is the seventh human rights defender murdered in Mexico so far in 2024.
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