MEXICO CITY — The bishop of the border town of Piedras Negras, Mexico, escaped a carjacking unscathed and suspects the crime was a case of his being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Bishop Alonso Garza Trevino was ordered out of his 2012 Mazda truck at gunpoint while stopped at an intersection at around 10 p.m. Sept. 25, his spokesman, Fr. Juan Renovato Lopez, told Catholic News Service.
The bishop and Fr. Renovato escaped unharmed, but received a “scare,” Fr. Renovato said. The vehicle was recovered a few hours later.
Piedras Negras, which borders Eagle Pass, Texas, has experienced an upswing in violence as drug cartels battle for a city considered a key for moving illegal merchandise to the United States and importing guns into Mexico.
The city made headlines Sept. 17 when 132 prisoners walked out of the local prison in an escape that officials blamed on Los Zetas, the cartel of ex-soldiers now carrying out crimes.
Fr. Renovato says church officials are asking locals to “be brave, but to take precautions, too.”
“We can’t hide and stop living our lives,” he said.
