A Christian advocacy group has joined calls for a transparent investigation into the killing of a Catholic priest in southern Mexico. The priest was found dead earlier this month in a region plagued by cartel violence and targeted attacks on clergy.
The body of Rev. Bertoldo Pantaleón Estrada, 59, was discovered on Oct. 6 in Guerrero state, days after he was reported missing by the Diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa. Pantaleón was last seen on Oct. 5 while returning from Atzcala to his parish in Mezcala, a short drive of about 30 minutes, but his body was found roughly 56 miles south of Atzcala with gunshot wounds to the neck, according to the United Kingdom-based watchdog group Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
Pantaleón had served as pastor of the San Cristóbal Church in Mezcala. Jesuit leaders in Mexico released a statement mourning his death and demanding clarity in the ongoing investigation.
Authorities announced the arrest of a suspect, identified as Miguel Ángel N., on Oct. 10. Officials said the suspect was an acquaintance of the priest and had given inconsistent accounts of their last meeting. They initially claimed the priest had been killed by his chauffeur, but church leaders denied Estrada had a chauffeur.
The priest’s vehicle was located far from the area he was expected to be traveling, in a zone controlled by rival criminal organizations. The region is known for violent turf wars between gangs, including Los Ardillos and Los Tacos, both allegedly involved in drug trafficking and armed conflict.
CSW Director of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said the murder was part of a longstanding pattern of violence against church leaders across Mexico.
“The violent killing of Father Bertoldo Pantaleón Estrada is yet another in a chain of murders of church leaders in Guerrero and across the country over the past two decades, making Mexico one of the deadliest countries in the world for priests and other religious leaders,” she said. “We join in the calls for a full and transparent investigation into this horrific murder and call on the Mexican authorities at both the state and federal levels to ensure that all of those responsible for Father Pantaleón Estrada’s death are held to account and the motive behind this murder firmly established.”
On Oct. 11, at least 400 clergy members and churchgoers reportedly marched in a “caravan of peace and justice” in the Guerrero capital, Chilpancingo, to demand accountability in the case.
Pantaleón’s death comes over a year after a retired bishop known for mediating cartel disputes, Salvador Rangel, was kidnapped in the same region. He was later found and taken to a hospital.
In 2018, parish priest Germain Muñiz Garcia and another clergyman, Iván Añorve Jaimes, were killed in a highway ambush in the same area. Over the past year, the state has seen a series of political assassinations, including the October 2024 beheading of Chilpancingo Mayor Alejandro Arcos Catalán, less than a week after taking office.
On the television program “Sacro y Profano,” Guillermo Ganzanini of the Catholic Multimedia Center raised concerns about the reliability of investigations into clergy killings.
“Unfortunately, we have a paper with eight columns of news, but continuity [of the coverage] on the case fades,” Ganzanini was quoted as saying. “We don’t know what has happened with the families, we don’t know what happened in the interrogations, there is no official answer from the institutions about the result of the investigations.”
The Catholic Multimedia Center has tracked 80 murders of Catholic priests in Mexico over the past 30 years.
Its December 2024 report lists the recent deaths of several priests across the country, including Father Ícmar Arturo Orta Llamas in Tijuana in 2018, Father José Martín Guzmán Vega in Tamaulipas in 2019, and three priests in 2021 — Franciscan Juan Antonio Orozco Alvarado, Gumersindo Cortés González in Guanajuato and José Guadalupe Popoca Soto in Morelos.
In 2022, three more priests were killed: Father José Guadalupe Rivas in Tijuana and Jesuits Javier Campos Morales and Joaquín César Mora Salazar in Chihuahua.
Between 2019 and 2024, the Catholic Multimedia Center documented 10 priest killings and 900 cases of extortion, death threats or violence against Catholic clergy across Mexico, the Catholic News Agency reported.
Religious freedom watchdog Open Doors ranked Mexico 31st in its 2025 World Watch List of the most dangerous countries for Christians. The group cited cartel-related violence, corruption, clan oppression and secular hostility as factors driving attacks on clergy.
