The news stunned Mexico: Four bishops from southern Guerrero state acknowledged in mid-February that they had met with drug cartel bosses to broker a possible truce.
The talks failed to produce a peace accord, but achieved agreement that the cartel will cease attacks on public transportation, attacks carried out often for nonpayment of extortion demands. Even more stunning, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador endorsed the bishops’ actions, saying at his press conference on 15th February: “I see it very well. I think we all have to contribute to achieving peace.”
A priest familiar with the talks, Father José Filiberto Velázquez, told Mexican media on 22nd February that Guerrero’s two biggest gangs, Los Tlacos and La Familia Michoacana, reached a truce, but the Church had not participated in the final negotiations.
“Perhaps what we have done had an influence, but credit goes to them,” he told Aristegui Noticias, a news website. Archbishop Carlos Garfias Merlos of Morelia, whose episcopal province covers Michoacán, a state beset by cartel conflicts, said he was unaware of any ongoing talks with criminal groups.
“I don’t think there are conditions at this time to have dialogue nor mediation,” in Michoacán, he said, adding, “All dialogue is possible.” News of the bishops’ participation in brokering a deal in Guerrero came in the prelude to the start of Mexico’s presidential election campaigns on 1st March.
Picture: Mexican Archbishop Carlos Garfias Merlos of Morelia (OSV News photo/David Agren)