Two Mexican priests were brutally killed in the early hours of Monday morning along the road that connects Taxco de Alarcon to Iguala, in the State of Guerrero, one of the most violent in the country. It was a bloody ambush, staged by a commando which blocked the car in which Father Germán Muñiz García and Father Iván Añorve were travelling and opened fire, killing the two priests and injuring the other three people who were travelling with them, including a teacher who is now fighting for her life. They had spent the feast of Candlemas in the nearby community of Julantla. Father Germain Muñiz García was from Apango, in the municipality of Mártir de Culiapan, and was parish priest of San Cristobal en Mezcalanella, in the Diocese of Chilpanchingo-Chilapa; Father Iván Añorve Jaimes was parish priest of the parish of the Sacred Family in Las Vigas, in the Archdiocese of Acapulco.
In a statement signed by the diocesan chancellor, the Diocese of Chilpanchingo-Chilapa expressed the hope that “facts are established quickly” and condemned this and other instances that continue to bring death in the region of Acapulco. The Archdiocese of Acapulco, for its part, besides calling for justice and praying for the killed priests and their families, stressed in an official statement: “We will not relinquish our commitment to building peace in our family, in our community, in our State, in our homeland. Let us ask the Lord for this peace every day. Every day, let us sow words and gestures of peace in our feelings and thoughts”.
The investigation into the ambush is still ongoing. And still little is known about the pastoral activity of the murdered priests. What is certain is that in recent times, the Bishops of the region, and in particular the Bishop of Chilpanchingo-Chilapa, Mgr. Rangel Mendoza, have often spoken out against violence in the region. Last Sunday, for instance, according to the local press, the Bishop denounced the endless string of murders that are causing so much bloodshed in the diocese, asking why such barbaric acts continue to take place despite the territory being heavily patrolled by the army: “Either evil is within us or someone opens and closes the door to criminals”, he added.