Mexico City, Mexico, Jul 6, 2005 / 22:00 pm
The Bishops’ Conference of Mexico issued a statement this week warning that the power vacuums created by the corruption and impunity that shields drug trafficking threaten to make the country ungovernable.
The statement, which was released by the bishops at the conclusion of their general assembly, states, “Mexico is a great country,” but the “growing spiral of violence and social unraveling generated by organized crime” is threatening to destroy young men and women and is creating “a culture of terror and of death.”
The bishops call on authorities to intensify the fight against delinquency by beefing up the police force and purging it of officers “corrupted by the power of money.”
They also called on lawmakers to approve more effective laws and on judges to reduce impunity by handing down tougher sentences aimed at preventing the spread of crime. The bishops called on the executive branch to stop passing the buck and to centralize the fight against crime in one sole department.