Drug violence in Mexico has decreased this year, though gruesome narratives still dominate headlines. In the first quarter of 2009 deaths from drug violence dropped 25% compared the same period in 2008, thanks to the deployment of 50,000 troops to 18 anomic locales by President Calderón in February. The violence is shocking, but instructive—while the vast majority of those killed are drug thugs, law enforcement and the church are increasingly in the crosshairs.
A shootout between cartel members and soldiers on June 6 left 16 gangsters and two soldiers dead in Acapulco. This clash illustrates a key caveat in Mexico’s battle with narco-gangs—civilians are largely insulated from the violence. Of the 6,300 that were killed in 2008, fewer than 250 were civilians. Over 90% of the deaths have been intra-gang, as rival cartels contest territory and reputation. As federal forces crackdown on the trade, the cartel’s wrath is evident.
Last weekend a priest and two seminarians were gunned down in Arcelia, in the state of Guerrero. The responsible party is yet unknown, but the murders were certainly the act of a drug gang. The clergy’s vehicle was reportedly followed after mass, riddled with gunfire, then the three men’s bodies were removed and shot in the back. This marks the first incidence of clergymen being directly targeted. Some speculate that one of the seminarians had a family member in a drug gang and the killings were a reprisal. Regardless, this may spark a new chapter in Mexico’s struggle, sucking the church further into the fray.
The church is a ubiquitous and revered presence in Mexican society, capable of swaying public opinion and policy. As the drug trade grew from 2004 on, many priests denounced the cartels, engendering a spate of threats. An estimated 1,000 priests have been threatened, and 20 have been relocated for their safety. In April, the archbishop of the state of Durango remarked that everyone knew where Mexico’s most wanted man, cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, lives. The statement, a critique of the government’s efforts, ratcheted up fears that the church would be marked for retribution by Guzmán’s cartel.
Few things are sacred at the nexus of narco-trafficking and organized crime. Once sacrilege is perpetrated it quickly becomes commonplace. Soldiers and police who prove impervious to corruption are targeted for assassination. As the Catholic Church, a bedrock of Mexican society, wades into the conflict with pronouncements about the effect of gang violence or the location of drug kingpins, it too will likely receive the unenviable attention of the cartels.
