Photo surfaces of murdered priest posing with weapon at dance

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

21 killed in so far in President Peña’s presidential term.

6 Killed in Guerrero in less than 3 years

As reported in my previous posts, two priests were among 3 killed in an armed attack in Guerrero.

The murdered priests are Germain Muñiz García, a native of Apango and parish priest of the church of San Cristóbal, in the mining town of Mezcala. And Iván Añorve Jaimes, from San Luis La Loma, municipality of Tecpan de Galeana and parish priest of the Sagrada Familia church in the town of Las Vigas, municipality of San Marcos, in the Costa Chica region.

The two priests and their four companions, attended a popular celebration in the town of Juliantla, municipality of Taxco, and were attacked directly after leaving the event when they were travelling on the federal highway Taxco-Iguala.

The victims were attending the celebration at the ranch "La Mision" of the rancher Hugo Figueroa in the celebrations of the Virgin of La Candelaria.

Although there have been press conferences by authorities and the church, there are facts that remain fuzzy, even the amount of those in the truck has fluctuated from 6 to 7.

Priests usually get killed In Mexico because they refuse to play nice with narcos.  In Tamaulipas, one priest was killed for not allowing a mass in his church, to honor niña blanca of the Santa Muerte.  Another was killed in Guerrero for refusing to baptize a capo’s baby.  His being a narco was not the reason, it was the lack of protocol that had not been met that witnesses say was the reason for the refusal.  Another priest was killed in Guerrero for his strong sermons against organized crime and violence.

So there is a story that has been published in some of the news outlets that I can’t quite grasp.  And it begins with a press conference by the governor Hector Astudillo and his state attorney general Xavier Olea.       

I must interject that many people dispute Astudillo claims including the diocese flat out rejects the governor’s account.  Normally, most people would reject what he has to say, taking into account the dynamic of Guerrero politics and the governing administration.  But there is this little issue of a blurry photograph with who the governor says is the dead priest named Germain Muñiz García.

For the sake of the story, let’s say the photo is the priest he is with some bad looking characters, all armed and the priest is  posing with a weapon.

Astudillo says the church group went to the festival and left around 7pm where they went to a house or a hotel and the priests had consumed alcohol and “had weapons”.  Obviously no one, the priests, the chemist, the fisherman, the professor had a weapon when they were gunned down.

The Catholic Bishop said the priests were to speak to the Figueroa’s about recording a record.  The two slain priests were musicians, who use music to preach in rural areas.  Fr. Muniz directed his famed choir and Fr. Anorve was a singer-songwriter from the Costa Chica region.

According to Olea, there were 3 organized crime groups at the festival.  He said police were not sent to keep the peace, “because we were not asked”.  He said because Father Muñiz García took a photo with the armed men.   He asserts that an organized crime group, in opposition to those in the photo with the priest, were incensed thinking the priest must be in their favor.  And that is what provoked the attack.  Enemy groups Guerreros Unidos and Los Rojos control the area. And various cells.

The four surviving witnesses, in addition to the diocese, reject Olea’s version that several opposing cartels attended the festival.  They point out if in fact there were multiple gangs/cartels there would have been an outbreak of violence between groups.  Witnesses also discount Olea’s version that the group of the priests had a confrontation with a gang.  The four surviving witnesses said everything was very peaceful and everyone enjoyed the day.. 

Could it be the priest was a bad guy in collusion?  Sure, rare in Mexico but not unheard of. Could it be that the governor has created theater to take the negative spotlight off him for the 6 Guerrero priests killed in 3 years? Sure again.  Could there be a scenario where the priest was goofing around and posed with a weapon? I could see that.  I have had friendships with priests and they are human, some are humorous, friendly, "people persons".  Priest are not forbidden from drinking alcohol.  Drinking to excess is off limits.

I don’t know the context for the photo but if these armed men were at the service of the organizer, perhaps someone asked him to pose and in bad judgement, he did.

There simply are not enough facts and evidence to say what happened and why.  We most likely will never know.  All I am sure of, they were gunned downed with 50 gunshots impacts to the truck.

And all those guns the Governor says the priest group were in possession of,  were nowhere in sight, all the victims and the truck were void of any weapons.