A Mexican priest has been found murdered in Michoacan, the attorney general for the central state has said, the third to be killed in the country in less than a week.
The priest in Michoacan, identified as Jose Alfredo Lopez Guillen, was found on a highway between Puruandiro and Zinaparo, The Guardian reported.
The priest had been shot dead and the autopsy suggested he had been killed five days before his body was found, the state attorney general’s office said on Sunday.
Mexico has endured years of drug-related violence, which has frequently touched the Roman Catholic church. In the 10 years to 2015, 31 priests were killed according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a rights group.
The state attorney general’s office said no ransom calls had been made after Lopez was reported missing earlier in the week. His body was identified by relatives.
The killing came days after two other priests, identified as Alejo Jimenez and Jose Juarez, were abducted from their church in the city of Poza Rica and found dead in the Gulf state of Veracruz.
Some priests in the world’s second-biggest Catholic country have denounced the violence of drug gangs.