Criminal gangs in Mexico are ‘running the state’, claims a senior bishop

The Mexican Government is being accused of failing to control the criminal activity of drugs cartels, writes Isabel de Bertodano.

Speaking after the funeral of an anti-cartel mayor, Bishop Ramón Castro Cuernavaca called for the authorities to retake control of the state of Morelos, which he says is run by criminal gangs.

Bishop Castro said: “How is it possible that an entire region is in the hands of criminal gangs?”

The bishop, whose diocese is just south of Mexico City, was speaking after officiating at the funeral of the Temixco mayor, Gisela Mota, 33, who was shot last week, the day after she took office. The leftist Democratic Revolution Party mayor had declared war on drug cartels.