Catholic Church Hierarchy Takes Tepid Stance Amidst Mexico's Violence InSight Crime
go to original November 18, 2013

Roman Catholic prelates in Michoacan state at last have drawn a line against local gangsters, and the officials nurturing them, further entangling what already was one of Mexico's more intractable knots of violence. But most of the Church hierarchy still seems reluctant to take a strong stand.

The bishops have jumped in as the homegrown Knights Templar gang squares off against civilian militias, rival gangsters and thousands of federal troops across the Pacific Coast state. Frustrated with the Templars' seemingly unrelenting hold on Michoacan, the bishops are naming names while security officials and the militiamen promise offensives against the Templars.

“Michoacan has all the characteristics of a failed state,” Miguel Angel Patiño, 74, who retires at month's end as the longtime bishop of the Templar stronghold of Apatzingan, wrote in an October missive to parishioners.

The Knights Templar and other gangs battle for Michoacan “as if it were a pirate’s bounty,” while “municipal officials and police are either subjugated by or in collusion with the criminals,” Patiño accused. “The rumor spreads that the state government is also at the service of organized crime, which provokes society’s desperation and disillusion.”

Read the rest at InSight Crime

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