InSight Crime: How a Priest in Mexico Resists the CJNG's Incursions

By El Huaso 2/15/2023 12:59:00 PM 8 comments
By Parker Asmann for InSight Crime.

It was around midday when the armed gunmen entered the chapel. Father Rafael Bonilla López** was administering mass.

In his small, rural town in western Mexico’s Tierra Caliente, or "Hot Land" region, it wasn’t uncommon to see men with high-powered weapons walking the streets or riding around in convoys of pickup trucks. Members of the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación - CJNG), one of the country’s foremost criminal organizations, had come roaring past the church before.

But this was the first time they’d entered the building. López told InSight Crime later there were nine of them in total, and they came in through the front door.

All “jóvenes,” he said -- no more than 30 years old.

This area between the states of Jalisco and Michoacán has long been a key battleground for a smattering of criminal groups, due in large part to its strategic location for synthetic drug production and its role as a national agricultural hub.

. . .



More:
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2023/02/insight-crime-how-priest-in-mexico.html

Courageous priest. Hope somehow he will survive.