{"id":8534,"date":"2024-03-12T08:35:59","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T12:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8534"},"modified":"2024-03-12T08:36:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T12:36:15","slug":"mexicos-presidential-candidates-sign-commitment-for-peace-with-church-leaders-concerned-by-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8534","title":{"rendered":"Mexico\u2019s Presidential Candidates Sign Commitment for Peace with Church Leaders Concerned by Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Claudia Sheinbaum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mexico\u2019s presidential candidates on Monday signed a commitment for peace with Catholic Church leaders that proposes strategies to reduce the violence in the country.<\/p>\n

During the meeting led by the Episcopal Conference of Mexico, presidential front-runner and ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum<\/a><\/span> said she would be open to dialogue but didn\u2019t to accept several criticisms of President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s security strategy made by the religious leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not share the pessimistic evaluation of the current moment,\u201d said Sheinbaum, who contended that not all Mexicans feel fear, distrust or uncertainty, as the church said in a document previously shared with all three candidates.<\/p>\n

Sheinbaum said homicides dropped during the presidency of L\u00f3pez Obrador. But organized crime has long controlled swaths of Mexico through violence and corruption. It has diversified beyond drug trafficking in recent years, extorting businesses big and small for protection payments.<\/p>\n

According to the church leaders, Mexico suffers from a \u201cdeep crisis of violence and social decomposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The church\u2019s first criticism of the government\u2019s security strategy arose in 2022, when the murder of two Jesuits<\/a><\/span> priests in the north of the country shook the public opinion and the ecclesiastical hierarchy.<\/p>\n

These concerns were discussed in 2023 during a \u201cNational Peace Dialogue\u201d that brought together civil society, academics, violence victims and businesspeople who searched for solutions to achieve justice, security and peace.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s document is titled \u201cNational Commitment to Peace\u201d and brings together policies aimed at fighting Mexico\u2019s chronic violence.<\/p>\n

X\u00f3chitl G\u00e1lvez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The relationship between L\u00f3pez Obrador and the Catholic Church has been tense ever since the murder of the Jesuits priests. Bishop Ram\u00f3n Castro, secretary general of the Episcopal Conference, said last week that he wished for a deeper dialogue between the president and the church.<\/p>\n

During her speech on Monday, opposition candidate X\u00f3chitl G\u00e1lvez<\/a><\/span> criticized the increased military presence<\/a><\/span> in Mexico and recalled that eight priests have been murdered during Lopez Obrador\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will make all these proposals my own,\u201d said G\u00e1lvez of the commitment to peace. \u201cI am convinced that the churches, and particularly the Catholic Church, to which I belong, play a fundamental role in building peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among her proposals to confront Mexico\u2019s violence, Galvez said she would improve the working conditions of police, prosecutors and judges.<\/p>\n

\u201cA problem of this magnitude requires everyone\u2019s participation,\u201d G\u00e1lvez said.<\/p>\n

Jorge \u00c1lvarez M\u00e1ynez, a little-known congressman running the presidency for Mexico\u2019s small Citizen\u2019s Movement, also expressed support for the church leaders and addressed L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s strategy of \u201c hugs, not bullets<\/a><\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told us that we didn\u2019t have to worry because they (the criminals) were only going to kill each other,\u201d \u00c1lvarez M\u00e1ynez said. \u201cBut they were wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last February, bishops of Guerrero<\/a><\/span>, one of the most violent states in Mexico, negotiated with criminal groups in an attempt to stop the wave of violence that afflicts its population.<\/p>\n

– Mar\u00eda Teresa Hern\u00e1ndez, AP News<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mexico\u2019s presidential candidates on Monday signed a commitment for peace with Catholic Church leaders that proposes strategies to reduce the violence in the country. During the meeting led by the Episcopal Conference of Mexico, presidential front-runner and ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum said she would be open to dialogue but didn\u2019t to accept several criticisms of President…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":8536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/2b0f049\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5208x3472+0+0\/resize\/1440x960!\/format\/webp\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fff%2F34%2F3121962c015e37989be60f4a48a0%2F0751a62b83d54146b1de0d2dd5a8054f","fifu_image_alt":"Mexico\u2019s Presidential Candidates Sign Commitment for Peace with Church Leaders Concerned by Violence","footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security-public-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8534"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8537,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8534\/revisions\/8537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}