San Juan Ozololtepec Journal; In the Hills, Marijuana Fields and a Priest’s Murder
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Church officials in the state capital outlined events leading to the priest’s murder in similar terms. ”His preachings confronted the narcotics traffickers,” said a report on the murder issued by the Rev. Wilfrido Mayren Pelaez, a priest who knew Father Ortiz. ”He denounced the burning of forests to plant marijuana and the enrichment of some people by poisoning others.” Mr. Gallardo, San Francisco’s Mayor, denied in a phone interview that marijuana was grown in his village, although he acknowledged that he spent a month in jail in 1980 on what he described as trumped-up marijuana charges. ”I have no idea how or why this priest was killed,” he said. ”I hope they arrest the person who did it.” Town officials in San Juan and the church authorities in the state capital said that the traffickers in the Sierra Madre were protected by a network that appeared to include state government officials. ”I don’t know anything about any mafia,” said Israel Jarquin Magno, the state government delegate with jurisdiction over San Juan and San Francisco. In a phone interview, Mr. Jarquin said he had no information about drug cultivation in the Oaxaca mountains. Enforcing narcotics laws is a federal responsibility, he said. ”Don’t ask me about that,” he added. Father Ortiz was buried in the village near the state capital where he was born. But following a tradition, his parishioners gathered on May 17, nine days after his burial, for an all-night memorial session to say the rosary. In San Juan’s plaza at midnight, smoke from smoldering forests mingled with incense wafting from the chapel, where 200 peasants, many weeping, knelt before a bank of glowing candles. At dawn, musicians sounded an Indian dirge as villagers trudged up a trail to a mountaintop cemetery, bearing a wooden cross honoring the slain pastor. One woman in the procession, Severina Heredia, described the impact of the priest’s death. ”Our world has turned black,” she said. Source : query.nytimes.com |