Priest Forced Into Exile Returns to Hero's Welcome David Agren - Catholic News Service
go to original July 13, 2012

Rev. Alejandro Solalinde speaks to relatives of missing immigrants from Central America as he takes part in a mass at a church in Puebla near Mexico City in 2011. (Imelda Medina/Reuters)

CIUDAD IXTEPEC - Father Alejandro Solalinde got a hero's welcome when he returned to his shelter for undocumented Central Americans. The welcoming crew included a brass band, media and dignitaries, as well as migrants waving signs reading, "We missed you."

He returned with an escort from the Mexican attorney general's office: four guards expected to provide security for the priest known for his willingness to confront corrupt officials and the organized criminal groups preying on migrants.

"This return of Father Solalinde is a continuation of his mission," said Scalabrini Sister Leticia Gutierrez, director of the Mexican bishops' human mobility ministry. "The migrants need you, we need you, too."

Father Solalinde left the country in May after receiving undisclosed threats; church and human rights officials encouraged him to go.

Such is the danger of working with the thousands of migrants transiting Mexico, where criminal groups - such as Los Zetas - kidnap them for ransom, and public officials are often complicit in their crimes.

And such is his fame - as one of Mexico's few figures to openly defy organized crime - that media made a big deal of his Mexico City press conference upon his return to the country earlier in the week. A team from the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights accompanied him back to Oaxaca July 12.

"This is my passion, my reason for being," Father Solalinde said upon returning to Oaxaca, adding that he never really wanted to leave the Brothers of the Road shelter that he had founded.

"I'm a missionary, not because I'm a priest ... because I'm baptized," he said.

For five years, Father Solalinde has struggled for the better treatment of migrants, mainly from a migrant shelter composed of concrete and cinderblock buildings adjacent to the railway lines on which undocumented Central Americans steal northbound rides.

His absence highlighted the worst of the country's security situation and the scenario facing migrants in Mexico, although Father Solalinde spoke of positive aspects, such as having the opportunity to meet with supporters and human rights officials abroad.

But impunity for crimes committed against migrants in Mexico is still rife, he said. National consciousness for migrants' plights has grown, but change is coming slowly.

Additionally, a new immigration law to give migrants more legal protections has been approved, but Father Solalinde said Congress did not create the necessary regulations to enforce it. As an example, a measure to provide temporary visas to migrants transiting Mexico was excluded from the regulations.

"We don't deserve (this) Mexico that we have, we don't deserve it anymore," Father Solalinde said. "It's a rotten Mexico that this is compromising new generations."

Father Solalinde met the previous day with Oaxaca Gov. Gabino Cue, who promised to provide protection and support for the shelter.

In 2010, new Oaxaca state leaders took office and appointed a prosecutor to investigate crimes against migrants; the prosecutor was among those at the welcoming ceremony.

The No. 2 official in the local government also greeted Father Solalinde - an about-face from the previous administrations that tried shut down his shelter and allegedly operated in cahoots with criminals.

"I couldn't have imagined this," Father Solalinde said of the municipality's reception. "It means turning a tremendously painful page that we've lived."

No one from the Diocese of Tehuantepec witnessed Father Solalinde's return, but he noted: "The church is large, much larger than the Diocese of Tehuantepec."

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