CV NEWS FEED // Catholic bishops in Mexico worked to negotiate treaties between drug cartel leaders to protect themselves, other Catholics, and their towns, according to a recent report.
According to The Associated Press (AP), Bishop José de Jesús González Hernández recently revealed that four bishops have been meeting with drug cartel bosses in efforts to “negotiate a possible peace accord.”
Retired Bishop Salvador Rangel told AP that the talks ultimately failed because the gangs “did not want to concede anything.”
The most recent talks attempted to resolve territorial disputes between different cartels and drug gangs, which have recently resulted in stopped transportation and several killings.
AP reported that several people have paid “protection payments” to drug cartels in exchange for safety and the promise of security for their homes or businesses. Cartels and gangs have also targeted churches and priests, despite bishops’ efforts to negotiate peace deals between the gangs.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on February 15 that he approves of the negotiations.
“Priests and pastors and members of all the churches have participated…in pacifying the country. I think it is very good,” López Obrador said, according to AP.
The Mexican president did add that he wouldn’t approve of “any agreement that meant granting impunity, privileges, or licenses to steal.”
Such negotiations have been held in the state of Michoacan, as well as other states. According to one priest from Michoacan, the government’s pacifistic attitude towards the drug cartels “is an implicit recognition that [the government] can’t provide safe conditions.”
“We wouldn’t have to do this if the government did its job right,” he said.
