The disappearance of Salvador Rangel Mendozabishop emeritus of the Diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa is beginning to take the route of a scandal that has nothing to do with the first versions provided to the media by the state prosecutor Uriel Carmona who, without having clear information or the prelate’s statement, assured that it was an express kidnapping. What is emerging through leaks of official documents to the press forces Rangel Mendoza and the Mexican Episcopate to quickly clarify what happened and explain in detail what happened to him, whatever it may be.
The radical turn in the Rangel Mendoza case occurred on Wednesday, with specific revelations on the Central de Noticias portal of Morelos and in El Universal, which contradict everything that had been said until now. Official documents that were delivered to their journalists deny that the bishop, who was reported missing on Monday, would have voluntarily entered the General Hospital of that capital on Sunday.
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The two publications indicated that paramedics picked him up at a hotel in Ocotepec, about half an hour from Jiutepec where the bishop lives, and were the ones who took him to the hospital. Central de Noticias, which obtained a copy of the official reports, cited: “The paramedics mention that they picked him up unconscious and naked in a room at the Hotel Real de Ocotepec. The paramedics present the patient’s belongings in a black bag, which is collected, and is dark gray dress pants, a purple plaid shirt, an intimate lubricant gel and a small black case with six condoms (one open). and five blue pills.”
El Universal highlighted the results of the toxicological tests, which showed the presence of cocaine and benzodiazepines – an opiate that requires a medical prescription. to treat disorders such as anxiety -, without finding marks on the neck or chest.
The media reproduced the log showing that he entered the hospital at 10 a.m. on Sunday, just over 12 hours after he was seen in a pizzeria south of Cuernavaca and a day before the authorities located him. “with neurological deterioration, at the expense of stupor, without belongings and with a blister pack of two Sildenafil pills”a medication that treats erectile dysfunction and sexually stimulates those who take it.
Regarding this, the interim governor of Morelos, Samuel Sotelo, expressed his doubts from the first hours after the bishop was located that it was not an express kidnapping. The point was given to the bishop by the state commissioner of Public Security, José Ortiz Guarneros, who assured yesterday that Rangel Mendoza He entered the hotel of his own free will. and accompanied by a man who “later retired.” The Hotel Real de Ocotepec has hotel and motel service, it did not register the bishop because, a clerk said, he would be there for a short time.
Rangel Mendoza left his house at an unspecified time last Saturday without his two cell phones; one was charging and the other was off. He left in his vehicle, an official said. The car he drove in that day has not been found.. The vehicle would be essential because through it it would be possible to reconstruct its routes, the exact time it entered and left the hotel and the current whereabouts of the unit, but the progress of the investigations to find it is unknown – if they have not done so. now-, and review their routes and routes. The bishop’s ministerial statement will also make it possible to fill in the information gaps regarding his disappearance and to know his version of the events.
The bishop had not testified before the public ministry because the doctors indicated that he was not in physical and mental condition to be able to do so, although they did not explain why he had been being treated since Sunday morning. could not have been recovered. Silence does not help him, nor will the Conference of the Mexican Episcopate find benefit in it, which only issued one statement when they filed the complaint about his disappearance, and one more when he reappeared.
Rangel Mendoza has been a highly controversial bishop for several years. He achieved national notoriety in February, when the negotiation he made with the two main criminal gangs in Guerrero, Los Tlacos and Los Ardillos, to achieve a truce and restore peace in Chilpancingo and other areas of the entity was made public. For more than three years he had been proposing a pact with criminals, generating a strong negative reaction that forced him to resign from the diocese in February 2022. A few months later he returned as bishop emeritus, without acting as his substitute. José de Jesús Gonzálezbut absorbing all the limelight.
Not very circumspect, Rangel Mendoza is a media figure who, having so many spotlights on him, whatever happens to him, For better and for worse, it has an impact on the high ecclesiastical hierarchy. The communiqués of the Conference of the Mexican Episcopate contribute to this symbiotic relationship that they have, although not all the prelates agree with him or share his initiatives. His enemies are within and without, particularly because of the fragile balance when dealing with two enemy criminal gangs.
But in this case, he and the Episcopate go together and have to act quickly and with the truth to confront the information that the authorities in Morelos are releasing – or some other power outside the government with access to the information -, which points that what happened has as its background activities that hurt the credibility of the Catholic Church and implicate it in actions that the Vatican does not sanction either. The documents that have been leaked to the press raise the need for a forceful response from him, through explanations that contribute to transparency, are solid and credible.
Rangel Mendoza is risking his public fame and the authorities have put the Mexican Episcopal Conference in the dilemma of knowing the truth and supporting him until the end or distancing themselves from him.
X: @rivapa
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2024-05-03 21:54:00