Mexican bishop files complaints after diocesan center burglarized

Published: 2008-01-03

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- A Mexican bishop who has received death threats because of his human rights work filed legal complaints after his diocesan human rights center was burglarized. On Dec. 26, Bishop Raul Vera Lopez of Saltillo filed complaints with the Coahuila state attorney general's office for injury, aggravated robbery and breaking and entering after the Fray Juan de Larios Center for Human Rights was robbed by two hooded perpetrators. Documents were removed from the premises and a female employee working in the office was tied up in the Dec. 20 incident. Bishop Vera, who was traveling at the time of the robbery, noted at a Dec. 24 press conference that the theft took place at the same time efforts were intensified to achieve justice for 13 sex-trade workers sexually assaulted by members of the Mexican military in Castanos in 2006. Bishop Vera had said that the acquittals of some of the accused soldiers "open the door even wider for members of the Mexican military to continue carrying out all kinds of atrocities."

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