Kidnapped Mexican priest found dead

A Mexican priest who was kidnapped after he accused a drug gang of murdering a group of students was found dead on Christmas Day.

Fr Gregorio Lopez Gorostieta, 39, was snatched from his car last Sunday in Guerrero state, in south-western Mexico, where 43 trainee teachers were kidnapped in September and are still missing. Fr Lopez’s body was discovered on Boxing Day in Tlapehuala. He had been shot in the head.

Guerrero state is one of the worst affected by drug and gang related violence in recent years.

Earlier this month, authorities in Mexico said they believed the 43 students had been abducted by corrupt police and handed over to a drug cartel, which had had them murdered and incinerated at a rubbish dump.

Local media reported that Fr Lopez, who was known locally as Padre Goyito, had accused the drug gang Guerreros Unidos of their murder, according to the BBC.

On Christmas Eve a group of priests and lay Catholics marched through the state calling for Fr Lopez to be released. The local bishop, Maximino Martínez Miranda of Ciudad Altamirano, sent an open letter to
the priest’s captors in which he said he was writing with “profound fear and pain” and wanted to discuss his release.

"We consider that Padre Goyito has, more than material value, a spiritual and humanitarian value – and that is something of which you are depriving you fellow brothers and sisters," he wrote.

Fr Lopez was the third priest to be killed in the state this year. Some 34 priests have been murdered in Mexico in the past 14 years.