EXPLAINER: What led to priests being killed in Mexico?
By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two Jesuit priests and a tour guide murdered in Mexico’s Sierra Tarahumara this week are the latest in a long line of activists, reporters, travelers and local residents who have been threatened or killed by criminal gangs that dominate the region. Despite wonders like the Copper Canyon, often called Mexico’s Grand Canyon, the mountains are a land of tragedy as well as beauty for the Raramuri Indigenous people and those who work with them. Drug cartels have long used the remote area to plant marijuana and opium poppies. They have expanded into illegal logging, driving out or killing anyone who opposes them.
