URIQUE, CHIH.- Three months after the murder of Jesuit priests Joaquín Mora and Javier Campos, a tourist guide and a young baseball player in the Cerochaui region, in the municipality of Urique, José Noriel Portillo Gil, alias “The Chuco”. Meanwhile, fear is growing in the Tarahumara community that something similar will happen or that the case will be forgotten.
The Jesuit priest Javier Ávila, known as “El Pato Ávila”, explains that in the mountains of Chihuahua there are two groups of people, the Rarámuri or Tarahumaras and the mestizos, who were similarly impacted by the crime against the most beloved priests of the region.
The prelate details that on the side of the mestizos the fear prevails that organized crime could do something to them, while in the Rarámuri there is sadness for having lost two of their great allies.
“Three months and ‘El Chueco’ still hasn’t been arrested. People continue to fear and, above all, mistrust the authorities because it is not seen that they are really working as they should. Impunity continues to be very present in this case and in many more cases in the state and in the country”, he commented.
For this reason, he adds, although people try to resume their day to day, the crime is not forgotten, since Father Gallo and Father Joaquín, as they were known in that area, were fundamental to the lives of its inhabitants.
COME FLAWLESS DIALOGUE
92 days after the crime, meetings with the Tarahumara community, Jesuits from Mexico and the government of Chihuahua to restore peace in that area of the mountains continue.
However, there is uncertainty that the dialogue could be diverted, since, in the opinion of the priest Javier Ávila, it is being distracted.
“There is a danger that we will leave or the dialogue will go in another direction. I am insisting a lot that we should not be distracted from what brought us together, which are the four homicides and the level of insecurity that exists in the Tarahumara”, she expresses.
The priest said that he fears that the government is more concerned “with resolving effects and not causes; for bringing programs, things, and not emphasizing” that homicides do not go unpunished.
Source: Vanguardia
