Priest in Mexico: Children long to be hitmen
How the new generations of Mexico are at risk because of violence and drug trafficking.
The new generations of Mexico are at risk because of violence and drug trafficking. The lifestyle of members of organized crime, full of luxuries of all kinds, contrasts with the poverty and violence that exists in the most vulnerable areas of the country, so it is not surprising that in these places children want to become in sicarios, as pointed out by the priest Adrián Alejandre Chávez.
The priest settled in the church of the Assumption in the municipality of Parácuaro, Michoacán, has seen how the struggle between the criminal groups Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), Los Caballeros Templarios and Los Viagras has turned towns or ranches into ghosts in the Maravatío, El Tepehuaje, and Ordeñitas communities.
Interviewed by El Universal, the priest notes at least three problems due to the presence of armed groups in the heart of Tierra Caliente, made up of some municipalities in Michoacán, Guerrero, and the State of Mexico, which are: the increase in violence, forced displacement and the interest of minors for being assassins.
"There are many children who even want to be hit men because they have gotten the idea of walking in the materialistic environment of the world, they see them with good wines, good clothes, in trucks with the latest model, they are fooled by this kind of life".
The original father of the Plaza Vieja in the municipality of Tepacaltepec pointed out that the solution to the problem is not in the government's strategy; but in that the social fabric must be changed with education granted by the families, which is fundamental to end the fight of cartels in Tierra Caliente because it is in this environment where values must be inculcated so that they do not allow themselves to be corrupted by the organized crime claws.
Despite this, the church also does its thing and the pastor tells them "not only see that (the luxuries of criminals). See all of us who are burying, all of us who are celebrating mass, the little ones who are being killed, those who are drugged and are causing problems."
"I always in the Eucharist, at the time of universal prayer, I always ask for peace, I always say to these people (criminals) that we are not anyone to judge them, but in the justice of God no one is going to escape. I say to the parishioners: let us pray for our brothers who dedicate themselves to violence, that conversion will come to them".
The representative of the Ecclesiastical Court revealed that he has never received threats, but "kind" warnings, "a comment that we did not have to do that (encourage people), but very kindly, that they were going to be respectful. two or three times, but as kind as possible, never aggression."
According to the Network for the Rights of Children in Mexico (Redim), from 2006 to 2017, 11,000 children and adolescents were killed and 6,800 were disappeared in the context of the fight against organized crime in the country. While the National Institute of Geography and Statistics (INEGI) noted that each year 7,000 children receive sentences for various crimes.
