Mexican presidential candidates on Monday signed a peace pledge with Catholic Church leaders proposing strategies to reduce violence in the country.
During a conference led by Mexico's Episcopal Church, presidential front-runner and ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum said she was open to dialogue, but criticized some religious leaders' criticism of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's security strategy. He said he does not accept criticism.
“I do not agree with the pessimistic assessment at this time,” Sheinbaum said, noting that all Mexicans are living in fear, distrust, and, as the church previously stated in a document shared with all three candidates. , insisted that he was not feeling anxious.
Sheinbaum said homicides have decreased during President López Obrador's term. However, organized crime has long controlled large swathes of Mexico through violence and corruption. In recent years, it has diversified beyond drug trafficking, extorting protection fees from companies large and small.
Church leaders say Mexico is in a “deep crisis of violence and social collapse.”
The church's first criticism of the government's security strategy came in 2022, when the murder of two Jesuit priests in the country's north shook public opinion and the church hierarchy.
These concerns were discussed in 2023 at the National Peace Dialogue, which brings together civil society, academics, victims of violence, and businessmen to seek solutions to achieve justice, security and peace.
Monday's document, titled “National Commitment to Peace,” outlines policies aimed at combating Mexico's chronic violence.
Relations between López Obrador and the Catholic Church have been strained since the murder of a Jesuit priest. Bishop Ramon Castro, general secretary of the Episcopal Conference, said last week that he hoped for deeper dialogue between the president and the church.
In a speech on Monday, opposition candidate Xocitl Gálvez criticized the increased military presence in Mexico and recalled that eight priests were killed during President López Obrador's term in office.
“I intend to make all these proposals my own,” Gálvez said of his peace efforts. “I am convinced that the Church, especially the Catholic Church to which I belong, plays a fundamental role in building peace.”
Among his proposals to combat violence in Mexico, Gálvez said he would improve working conditions for police, prosecutors and judges.
“An issue this big requires everyone's participation,” Galvez said.
Jorge Álvarez Maínez, a little-known congressman who heads Mexico's small civic movement, also expressed support for church leaders and criticized López Obrador's “hugs, not bullets” strategy. Mentioned.
“They told us not to worry because they (the perpetrators) would just kill each other,” Alvarez Mines said. “But they were wrong.”
Last February, bishops in Guerrero, one of Mexico's most violent states, negotiated with criminal gangs to try to stem the wave of violence plaguing residents.
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