Father Marcelo Pérez, an indigenous Tzotzil Maya priest with the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas, in Mexico's conflicted southern state of Chiapas, was assassinated immediately after celebrating Mass Oct. 20. He was returning to his car from the church at the barrio of Cuxtitali in the highland city of San Cristóbal when he was shot by gunmen on a motorcycle. Hundreds of mourners attended his funeral the following day in the village of his birth, San Andrés Larráinzar, chanting "Long live Father Marcelo, priest of the poor." He had received threats for his outspoken opposition to the criminal organizations and paramilitary groups fueling violence in Chiapas. The murder was condemned in a statement by the Mexican Bishops' Conference, which said the act "not only deprives the community of a dedicated pastor but also silences a prophetic voice that tirelessly fought for peace with truth and justice in the region of Chiapas."

The diocese remembered him as a "tireless apostle of peace." At the open-air funeral in San Andrés Larrainzar, retired Bishop José Raúl Vera López of Saltillo said: "Father Marcelo took special care of the poorest, the weakest, the most unprotected, and he protected them from abusive people, from powerful people, from people who feel they own society and the land and who do not mind harming the lives of others to enrich themselves or to acquire greater political power to get everything they want."

Bishop Vera was coadjutor bishop in San Cristóbal de las Casas when Father Pérez entered the seminary.

Pérez had also apparently been targeted by the authorities. In 2021, he was serving as parish priest in the village of Pantelhó when 21 young people were abducted there by the vigilante group "El Machete." According to local media, the Chiapas prosecutor general's office issued an arrest warrant for Pérez in reaction to the case, although it was never carried out. He was subsequently transfered to San Cristóbal because of threats made against him in Pantelhó.

One man has been arrested in the assassination of Father Pérez. (BBC News, OSV News, CNA, DW)

Violence, especially targeting prominent local figures, continues to escalate in Chiapas. On the same day Pérez was buried, an attempt was made on the life of the newly elected mayor of Chilón. Mario Hernández Aguilar, of the Labor Party (PT), was unharmed in the attack in the hamlet of Yaalton. (Sol de Chiapas, Cambio de Michoacán)

On Sept. 3, the mayor-elect of Frontera Comalapa, on the Guatemalan border, was abducted by an armed gang. The mayor-elect, Aníbal Roblero Castillo of the Mexican Ecological Green Party (PVEM), has not been returned. (El Universal, Mexico News Daily)

See our last report on the human rights crisis in Mexico.