Priest Marcelo accompanied indigenous communities; Acteal marked his life

San Cristóbal De Las Casas, Chis. The priest Marcelo Pérez Pérez not only dedicated himself to preaching the Gospel, but he accompanied social movements and raised his voice to defend the most vulnerable, for which he was the object of constant death threats and attacks by organized crime groups. .

In fact, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) ordered the Mexican State to implement precautionary measures in his favor since 2015, when he was parish priest of Simojovel, where he denounced chiefs from various political parties that controlled municipal power.

Pérez Pérez was born in the Chichelalhó community, municipality of San Andrés Larráinzar, on January 17, 1974 and was ordained on April 6, 2002 by the then bishop of San Cristóbal, Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel. He was the third of 11 siblings.

Before being sent to Simojovel, he was a parish priest in Chenalhó, where he was close to members of the civil society organization Las Abejas, to which the 45 Tsotsil massacred by PRI paramilitaries on December 22, 1997 belonged.

In Simojovel he clashed with local chiefs; With demonstrations he managed to stop some abuses and reduce the indiscriminate sale of alcoholic beverages, as well as the distribution of drugs, which caused him to receive death threats.

To protect him, the diocese assigned him a few years ago the parish of Guadalupe, located in San Cristóbal, where he maintained contact with many groups, including environmentalists and teachers from the National Coordinator of Education Workers, so a group of teachers from the Altos region yesterday went to the Guadalupe square to condemn his murder and demand that justice be done.

Due to his origin and his pastoral work, he was close to inhabitants and groups in municipalities of the Altos such as Pantelhó, where he faced a group of political and economic power, for which he was once again the subject of threats.

The now Cardinal Arizmendi Esquivel, who lives in Toluca, state of Mexico, regretted the murder “very much.” He said he was “very painful” and announced that he would go to his funeral.

He recalled that Marcelo “was one of the first indigenous priests that I ordained as a priest,” after his arrival to the diocese in 2000. “He was always committed to justice and peace among the indigenous peoples, especially in Simojovel, and accompanying the victims of internal violence in Pantelhó,” he explained.

He assured that “he never got involved in partisan politics, but always fighting for the values ​​of the kingdom of God to come to life in the communities. They are the values ​​of truth and life, holiness and grace, justice, love and peace.”

Felipe Arizmendi maintained that “in Pantelhó’s internal struggles for political and economic power, he did not lean towards one party, but towards respect for everyone, for the defense of the displaced and for dialogue between the parties to reach peaceful solutions. ”.

The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center disclosed that Pérez Pérez “was a human rights defender who for years dedicated himself to the fight for the lives of the people, and to the construction of peace in Chiapas, as well as to denounce the violence that has been experienced for decades in the state, for which the Mexican government is responsible.”

He added that despite the IACHR’s request that precautionary measures be implemented, “the Mexican government was negligent and acquiescent in addressing the underlying causes of the threats against them. Far from his protection, the Mexican State criminalized him, encouraged accusations against him and judicially persecuted him through an arrest warrant” that he was detained.