Stolen Bodies of Two Jesuit Priests Killed by CDS El Chueco Found in Chihuahua

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat 

As previously reported by Sol in this article, two elderly Jesuit priests were shot to death while they were inside a church in Cerocahui, in the state of Chihuahua. Their dead bodies were then removed from the church by cartel members.

Now, their bodies have finally been found and recovered from a second location.

The Church Shooting

The shooting occurred on Monday, June 20, 2022, within the small town of Cerocahui, which is located within the municipality of Urique, in the south western part of the state of Chihuahua. It lies within the Copper Canyon region which contains six distinct canyons. The walls of the canyons are a copper/green color, which is the origin of the name.

 

The town of Ceroahui was founded back in 1680 by a Jesuit priest and the town is still most known for its church, called San Jose de Cerocahui Mission Church.

As time passes and more media attention surrounds the murder, more and more details about the chain of events which led to the homicides have emerged. This is what we can gather so far based on the currently available details: 

The Chihuahua State Attorney General Roberto Fierro stated that two men, who were brothers, had recently played in a baseball game against a team sponsored by Sinaloa Cartel member José Noriel Portillo Gil, alias “El Chueco”. The baseball game had ended in an argument after Portillo's team lost. In an act of retaliation during an unstated time, one of the two brothers was shot inside his home and then his house was set on fire. 

Fierro said that a man named Pedro Eliodoro Palma Gutiérrez, who worked as a tour guide for visitors to the Chihuahua area, was attacked by cartel gunmen in relation to “the abduction of four persons earlier in the day,” on Monday, June 20, 2022. 

It is believed that two men, one woman and one child were abducted. It is unclear if the two brothers from the baseball game are the same as the two men who were kidnapped. Or if Pedro Palma is the brother who was shot. The lack of clarity in regard to these details is frustrating, to say the least.

All we do know is that after the abduction of the four people, tour guide Pedro Eliodoro Palma Gutiérrez was attacked and he walked into San Jose de Cerocahui Mission Church having been badly wounded by cartel gunmen just minutes earlier. 

When Pedro Palma entered the church, three priests were present inside. One of these priests was Javier Campos Morales, known as Father Gallo, who was 79 years old. Another priest present was Father Joaquín César Mora Salazar who was 80 years old. 

The dioceses stated that the two priests began “exercising their duty of physically and spiritually aiding a person who was dying”, referring to the wounded Pedro Palma. It is likely this statement means the priests were trying to medically aid Pedro, such as applying pressure to a bleeding wound, as well as possibly performing the Catholic ritual of last rites. 

Then -either a single or multiple- cartel gunmen entered the church and shot the two priests and tour guide dead “at close range”. The gunman chose not to kill the third priest inside the church and this priest’s testimony is where most of these details derive from. 

The third priest said he pleaded with the gunman not to take the bodies of those they had killed away but the gunmen [or gunman] ignored him.

The bodies of the three were then taken away by a group of men in the back of a pickup truck according to a radio interview with Luis Gerardo Moro, head of the Jesuits in Mexico.

Other Tellings of the Shooting

The news publication Texas Border Business tells the chain of events somewhat differently, writing:

"The criminal group, identified with Los Salazar and linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, had kidnapped Pedro Heliodoro Palma, a renowned community tour guide, at the Hotel Misión, and took him to the San Francisco Javier parish to say goodbye [last rites?]. But apparently, he tried to escape there and was killed by the alleged aggressor, José Noriel Portillo, alias 'El Chueco.'

One of the priests immediately approached him to provide spiritual assistance, and, at the moment that he was giving spiritual services, El Chueco shot him and killed him. Another of the priests wanted to help him and was also killed. After killing the three, El Chueco and his accomplices took the bodies," 

 

In yet another slightly different version, the Jesuit priest Javier Ávila alleges that all three priests had known El Chueco since he was a child. 

Javier Ávila describes the chain of events all follows: 

"El Chueco shot the tour guide Pedro Eliodoro inside the church and one of the priests ran to help and was also shot. 

The second priest arrived and stood before El Chueco, telling him 'calm down, what is wrong with you' and was also shot. 

A third priest, Jesus Reyes, who, like the other two priests, had known El Chueco since he was a child, got him to stop and El Chueco began to speak with him for about an hour, eventually asked for forgiveness and having confession.

Father Reyes tried to convince El Chueco to leave the three bodies in the church, however armed men took the bodies in the back of a pickup truck."

The Aftermath

On June 21, 2022, the Diocese of the Tarahumara Mountains of Western Chihuahua released a letter which revealed publicly that the priests’ bodies were missing. “Not satisfied with killing them, the assassins took their bodies, which share the fate of so many disappeared ones that leave behind pain, sadness and outrage among those who loved them,” the diocese said in a statement.

Two of the four people who were abducted have since been released. During a presidential press conference, President Obrador revealed that the  child abducted had been released. Then, later press reports alleged that the adult woman had also been released by her captors. 

Then on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 22, multiple news sites reported that the missing bodies of the priests had now been recovered. 

The Cartel Aspect of the Homicides

Criminal groups in the Urique and Bocoyna region are often involved in illegal logging. Bocoyna, for example, has over 200 sawmills, many of them within the town of San Juanito. These sawmills process both legal and illegal wood from the surrounding area and provide employment to the town. According to a 2020 report, about half of these sawmills belong to and/or cooperate with La Línea. The other half pays extortion fees (known as piso) to operate in the area.

Chihuahua Cartel Map Story Linked Here

Urique contains numerous gold, silver, and zinc mining operations in the area that both the Sinaloa Cartel and Línea compete for. These two cartels rob mines, extort mining companies, and even kidnap workers.

So what do we know about José Noriel Portillo Gil, alias “El Chueco”? El Chueco is a regional leader for Sinaloa Cartel's subgroup Los Salazars, which he reportedly joined in 2012, when he was 26 years old. 

El Chueco is reported to control the area of Urique and Uruachi, along with parts of Creel. In April 2017 he was falsely reported to have been killed in a shootout which left 8 people dead and 5 individuals kidnapped at a quinceañera.

In September 2020, newspaper El Heraldo de Chihuahua reported that El Chueco had El Tavo, Chapo Calin and El Servandito working under him. Some reports, like this article from Acento, allege that Chueco reports to Ruperto Salgueiro Nevárez, alias El 37, the leader of Los Salgueiros however Chueco's Los Salazar affiliation casts doubt on this claim. 

Allegedly one of his direct reports is someone with the alias "El Tavo" who operates in Creel, in Bocoyna municipality. Few further details such as a name not any photos of El Tavo are available online. Meanwhile Chapo Calin, also known as "El 13", was arrested the morning of August 10, 2021 by members of the military and National Guard in Guachochi, Batopilas, a town which he was described as being the leader of.

The murder of the Jesuits is not the first time El Checo's violence has drawn the ire of the US media  The Chihuahua state governor has attributed the November 2018 murder of a North Carolina school teacher named Patrick Braxton-Andrew to El Chueco.

In the case of the school teacher, El Chueco allegedly thought the foreign tourist worked for the DEA. Before his disappearance, Patrick had been seen talking to locals, which made Chueco nervous, according to information gathered by El Sol de Chihuahua.

In April 2022, it was reported that federal forces were close to capturing Chueco during the rescue of a kidnapping victim, but Chueco managed to escape. The rescue operation did, however, lead to the arrest of two individuals who were found to be in possession of an arsenal of 65 long barrel firearms and 16 short barrel firearms, in addition to 14 grenades, grenade launchers, magazines and cartridges.

The photo seen above was released on late Wednesday, June 22, 2022, when the FGE officially announced that El Chueco was their main suspect in the triple homicide in the church and offered a $5 million peso reward. The photo appears to be the most recent image available of Chueco.

Statement by the Pope

Pope Francis, who much like the deceased has served as a Jesuit priest to a spanish-speaking community during violent times, said the following:

I also express my sorrow and dismay at the killing, in Mexico the day before yesterday, of two Jesuit religious – my confreres – and a layman. How many killings there are in Mexico! With affection and prayer, I am close to the Catholic community affected by this tragedy. Once again, I repeat that violence does not solve problems, but increases unnecessary suffering.

Statement by the Jesuits of Mexico

A statement was released by the Jesuits of Mexico, which reads as follows:

The Jesuits of Mexico, with deep pain, denounce the murder of our brothers Javier Campos Morales, SJ and Joaquín César Mora Salazar, SJ, which occurred yesterday inside the community temple from Cerocahui, Chihuahua.

We condemn these violent acts, we demand justice and the recovery of the bodies of our brothers who were taken from the temple by armed persons.

We also demand that all protective measures be adopted immediately to safeguard the lives of our Jesuit brothers, sisters, lay people and the entire Cerocahui community.

Facts like these are not isolated. The Sierra Tarahumara, like many other regions of the country, faces conditions of violence and neglect that have not been reversed. Every day men and women are senselessly deprived of life, just like how our brothers were murdered today.

The Jesuits of Mexico will not remain silent in the face of the reality that blights all of society. We will continue to be present and working for the mission of justice, reconciliation and peace, through our pastoral, educational and social works.

By denouncing what happened, we also note the pain that our people are experiencing due to the prevailing violence and we stand in solidarity with so many people who suffer from the same situation, who go on without their suffering ever arousing empathy and public attention.

We trust that the testimonies of Christian life of our dear Javier and Joaquín continue to inspire men and women to give themselves in the service of the most vulnerable.

The Two Priests 

Border Report detailed the following: 

In their private conversations, the now deceased Father Gallo used to tell Vicar Mario Manrriquez that he was concerned about the poverty, drug trafficking and growing drug addiction rates in the mountains of Western Chihuahua, which include several Indigenous communities.

“He was always looking for ways to help the people. He spoke about hunger and the lack of medicines. That’s what worried him the most,” Manrriquez told Border Report. Despite all that, “he never asked to be reassigned and he never wanted to leave the mountains.”

“Everywhere you look there is impunity, every [act of violence] is muddled. They [the authorities] just blame organized crime and that seems to be a free pass for operating with impunity,” Manrriquez said, “we don’t know exactly what happened (in Cerocahui), but people frequently come into the church seeking the priest’s help and we don’t ask for ID, we don’t ask where they come from. All kinds of human beings come to us and they are all people we need to hear out, to help, to serve.”

“There’s no respect for life, not even for women or children,” he said, reflecting on recent mass shootings in Juarez, including one last week inside a Denny’s Restaurant when two women and two men were shot dead while sitting at a table celebrating one of the women’s birthdays. A patron who tried to run away also was shot, but survived, according to the state police.

Manrriquez said he regrets the murder of his peers, but he hopes it will help people realize that most men of the cloth are good people who dedicate their lives to helping others.  

 

Border Report also spoke to Father Alfredo Roana who said he doesn’t know if the killers were aware the men they were gunning down were priests, or if they were locals who should’ve known or hired guns from elsewhere. But when asked if he would have done the same thing – stand up for a wounded man being pursued by assassins – he said he would.

“At that moment, you don’t weigh the consequences. Our calling, our training is to stand up for others. If that person comes in, you protect him. Maybe you don’t expect to get shot, but even knowing the possibility of it - it does not stop you,” Roana said.

Sources: Excelsior Article 1, Article 2, TV Azteca, 24-Horas Article 1, Article 2, Aristegui Noticias, Statement by Jesuits of Mexico, Washington Post, El Heraldo de Chihuahua,  El Sol de Mexico, Diario.MX, CNN, CBS News 

El Chueco Sources: Diario, Newsweek, Acento, El Heraldo de Chihuahua