Catholic Priest Found Dead in Mexico on Christmas After Being Kidnapped, Shot
A missing priest was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in an alley on Christmas Day.
The Rev. Gregorio Lopez Gorostieta is the latest victim in series of abductions, attacks and highway robberies targeting Roman Catholic clerics in southern Guerrero state, an area plagued by violence and drug cartels.
According to the Diocese of Altamirano, Rev. Gorostieta was forced out of his truck and kidnapped by unidentified men before being fatally shot in the head early Monday.
"We are tired of pain and delinquency, injustice and corruption," said Bishop Maximino Martinez Miranda, reports CNN. "We want the incidents to be clarified, as well as the death of so many people in Guerrero state. We live in a moment of violence."
"There is a moment when priests come out to reclaim justice for the people, and that perhaps does not please everyone. There are many hypotheses. We are leaving this in the hands of the corresponding authorities," the bishop continued.
Although officials have not found any suspects or motives in the case, Bishop Martinez said a group was spotted lurking around the seminary where the priest taught on the outskirts of Ciudad Altamirano, Guerrero, on Sunday and Monday.
"This is another priest added to those who have died for their love of Christ," Bishop Martinez said, according to the Associated Press. "Enough already of so much pain, of so many murders. Enough already of so much crime. Enough extortions."
Lopez is the second priest from the diocese found dead since September and the third Catholic priest to have been killed in the region in 2014.
Earlier this year, the former mayor of the southern Mexican city of Iguala was charged with murder and attempted murder in connection to the disappearance of 43 students in September.
Prosecutors in Guerrero, Mexico, announced that they have formally charged Jose Luis Abarca with "aggravated homicide against six people" and the "attempted murder of others," reads a statement on their website, according to BuzzFeed.
The six people died when local police opened fire on Sept. 26 in an attack directed at 43 students who attended a rural teacher-training college. According to authorities, Abarca ordered police and a gang to attack the students in order to prevent them from derailing a speech set to be delivered by his wife, reports the Los Angeles Times.
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