Mexico City, Mexico, Nov 1, 2010 (CNA) -- The Archdiocese of Mexico City and Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera have expressed profound sorrow over the recent “cowardly and incomprehensible murders” of more than 100 innocent people in the cities of Tijuana, Juarez and Nayarit. 
As of Oct. 28, Tijuana, just 16 miles south of downtown San Diego, had reported 670 homicides so far this year. The city has an estimated population approaching 2 million. Violence carried out by drug lords has led to more than 100 murders in just one week in parts of Mexico. The number includes three massacres, one that left 15 people dead at a car wash. On Oct. 25, gunmen lined up and shot to death 13 people at a Tijuana drug rehabilitation center. In a press release, Cardinal Rivera pleaded for an end to the killings, emphasizing that “organized crime is a path to perdition and eternal condemnation.” He pledged to pray for the victims and their families, and then turned his attention to those responsible for such “abominable crimes.” He implored them “in the name of God to cease their killings, kidnappings, torturing and extortion of so many innocent people, including women, children and young people who are just beginning their lives.” “There is no justification for these killings,” he said. “They are bloody crimes that cry out to heaven for justice.” “God is not deaf to the suffering and cries of the innocent,” the cardinal warned. “We remind those who have committed these inhuman acts that they will have to render an account before the Lord when they die for these most grave sins that have left so much suffering and desolation in our troubled country,” Cardinal Rivera continued. “No one should give in to organized crime, which is contrary to Christ and his Gospel of eternal life,” he said. The cardinal concluded his statement entrusting Mexico to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe for peace in the country.
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