Decrying Graft, Pope to Tour Poor, Violent Corners of Mexico
February 7, 2016
MEXICO
CITY — Pope Francis will visit some of the poorest and most violent
corners of Mexico on his first visit as pontiff, and will also head to
the northern border to address the plight of migrants trying to reach
the United States.
More
than 100,000 people have been killed in Mexico's drug wars over the
last decade and its reputation was battered by the case of 43 students
abducted and apparently massacred in 2014.
President
Enrique Pena Nieto´s government botched the investigation, and
relatives of the victims are looking to Francis for help in getting to
the truth.
"The
pope ... is coming to see how institutions have sought to forget the
case of our children and leave it in impunity. He will see how drug
gangs have infiltrated the government," said Meliton Ortega, whose son
Mauricio is among the 43.
So
far, the remains of just one of the students has been positively
identified from charred bone fragments the government says were
recovered from a garbage dump in the restive state of Guerrero in
southwest Mexico.
A team of international experts probing the case has rejected the government's version of events.
Relatives
of the students will be among those attending a Mass the pope will say
in Ciudad Juarez, on the border with Texas, which was for several years
one of the world's most violent cities.
He
will also celebrate Mass with indigenous communities in Mexico's
poorest state, Chiapas, speak with young people in Morelia, the capital
of violence-torn Michoacan state, and visit prison inmates in Ciudad
Juarez.
There
is no private meeting planned between the students' relatives and the
pope, although such encounters are often organized at the last minute.
Ahead of his visit, which begins on Friday, Francis urged Mexicans to battle against corruption and drug gang violence.
"The
Mexico of violence, the Mexico of corruption, the Mexico of drug
trafficking, the Mexico of cartels, is not the Mexico our Mother wants,"
the pope said in a video released by the Vatican last week, referring
to Our Lady of Guadalupe, who Roman Catholics venerate as the patroness
of Mexico.
"Of
course I don't want to cover up any of that. On the contrary, I exhort
you to fight every day against corruption, against trafficking, against
war, against division, against organized crime, against human
smuggling."
Pena
Nieto's government has drawn criticism for failing to go after corrupt
politicians, even those indicted in the United States. He, his wife and
his finance minister have all been embroiled in conflict-of-interest
scandals over houses purchased from government contractors.
Father
Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said the Pope wants to visit
parts of Mexico a pontiff had not visited before, and that the Mass in
Ciudad Juarez "is a symbol of his concern for migrants".
Illegal
immigration is a major issue in the U.S. presidential election campaign
with Republican hopeful Donald Trump vowing to put up a wall along the
border if he is elected and forcing Mexico to pay for it.
"The
Mass is being intentionally held right on the border so that it will be
visible from both sides," Lombardi said. "It´s a fence, it´s not a
Chinese wall."
The Vatican expects a crowd of at least 200,000 on the Mexican side and of 50,000 on the U.S. side.
(Additional
reporting by Philip Pullella in Vatican City and Anahi Rama in Mexico
City; Writing by Simon Gardner; Editing by Kieran Murray)
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