Christian Group Demands Justice After Mexican Priest Murdered
A leading religious freedom advocacy group joined Christians in southern Mexico Oct. 17 demanding answers after the latest murder of a Catholic priest in the region torn by drug cartels.
Mexican authorities have arrested a suspect in the death of Bertoldo Pantaléon Estrada, whose body was found Oct. 6 south of his parish, but local leaders have no confidence in the police investigation, CSW said in calling for transparency.
Estrada, 59, is the latest in a string of Catholic priests murdered in Mexico, a number the religious persecution tracking group Catholic Media Center put at 80 over the past three decades in 2024.
Mexico is one of the deadliest countries for priests, CSW Director of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said in urging a transparent investigation.
“The violent killing of Father Bartoldo Pantaléon Estrada is yet another in a chain of murders of church leaders in Guerrero and across the country over the past two decades, making Mexico one of the deadliest countries in the world for priests and other religious leaders,” Stangl said Oct. 17. “We join in the calls for a full and transparent investigation into this horrific murder and call on the Mexican authorities at both the state and federal levels to ensure that all of those responsible for Father Pantaléon Estrada’s death are held to account and the motive behind this murder firmly established.”
CSW joins at least 400 Catholic church leaders and members who marched Oct. 11 in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero, in a “caravan of peace and justice” in response to the murder and investigation, the international Catholic news weekly The Tablet reported.
Estrada went missing Oct. 5 while returning to his Mezcala parish of San Cristóbal from the town of Atzcala, a 30-minute drive away in Guerrero. His body was found two days later with gunshot wounds to his neck, but his car was 56 miles south of Atzcala, CSW reported.
“No explanation has been provided for why the priest had apparently travelled so far south of his parish,” CSW said. “The area where Father Pantaléon Estrada served as a priest is characterized by the presence of multiple organized criminal groups linked to the trafficking of illegal narcotics, two of which, Los Ardillos and Los Tacos, have been engaged in violent conflict.”
Police have arrested an individual identified only with an initial for his last name, Miguel Ángel N., said to be an acquaintance of Estrada, with no indication of whether he acted alone or with others. Authorities first said Estrada was murdered by his chauffeur, but church leaders said the priest did not have a chauffeur.
Previously in Mezcala, parish priest Germain Muñiz Garcia, was shot dead in a highway ambush in 2018, CSW noted, along with another priest, Iván Añorve Jaimes. Many political and governmental leaders have been murdered in Guerrero in the past year, CSW said, including Chilpancingo Mayor Alejandro Arcos Catalán, who was decapitated less than a week after taking office in October 2024.
According to the Catholic Media Center’s December 2024 report, a long line of murdered priests in Mexico includes in recent years Ícmar Arturo Orta Llamas of the Archdiocese of Tijuana in October 2018; José Martín Guzmán Vega, a priest of the Diocese of Matamoros in Tamaulipas state, in 2019; Franciscan priest Juan Antonio Orozco Alvarado, Gumersindo Cortés González in Guanajuato State and José Guadalupe Popoca Soto in Morelos State, all in 2021; and in 2022, José Guadalupe Rivas of the Archdiocese of Tijuana, and Jesuits Javier Campos Morales and Joaquín César Mora Salazar in the state of Chihuahua.
Religious freedom watchdog Open Doors, in its 2025 World Watch List of the most dangerous places for Christians, ranks Mexico as 31st, noting organized corruption and crime, clan oppression and secular intolerance.
This article has been republished courtesy of Baptist Press.
Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.