Three Catholic bishops in the western Mexican state of Michoacan have been threatened by drug traffickers, a church spokesman told Efe."They asked them to stop condemning the illegal drug activity.
Some parish priests have also started prevention programs and denounced the groups that conduct retail drug sales and (the criminals) have felt affected," Mexico City Archdiocese spokesman the Rev. Hugo Valdemar said.
The bishops have rejected the offers of security made by officials for now, but if the threats become more serious, they could accept them, the church spokesman said.
"They are very reluctant about this," Valdemar said.
Michoacan, home to the La Familia Michoacana drug organization, has been the scene in recent weeks of shootouts and arrests linked to the illicit drug trade.
One of the worst incidents occurred last Monday, when the bodies of 12 federal police officers were found on a highway in Michoacan.
The killings were apparently in reprisal for the arrest on July 11 of a leading figure in La Familia Michoacana, Arnoldo Rueda Medina.
More than 5,000 federal police have been deployed in the state, with army troops now being added to bolster security.
The government has sent three Black Hawk helicopters and 10 tactical armored vehicles to provide support to the security forces operating in Michoacan.
In April, two soldiers were killed in the northern state of Durango and a message apparently left by gunmen working for Sinaloa drug cartel chief Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman was left with the bodies, challenging the government and the Catholic Church.
"No one can ever deal with 'El Chapo,' not priests or the government," the message left April 21 in the town of Cienaga de Escobar with the bodies of the two army lieutenants said.
Durango Archbishop Hector Gonzalez Martinez said on April 17 that Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, was living in the state.
"Beyond Guanacevi, that's where 'El Chapo' lives. All of us know it, except the authorities," Gonzalez Martinez told a press conference.
Regarding the offer for a dialogue with the government made last week by a high-ranking member of La Familia, Valdemar said that path should be avoided.
"The state cannot dialogue with criminals, it has to apply the law. If they want a dialogue, they should think about their actions and stop doing what they are doing," the church spokesman said.
"You cannot dialogue with someone who is challenging the state going in," Valdemar said.
La Familia Michoacana and the Gulf cartel have been fighting for control of Michoacan.
The state is strategically located on the Pacific coast, giving drug traffickers access to routes for smuggling drugs into the United States, and it is also one of Mexico's main producers of marijuana, poppies and synthetic drugs.
Armed groups linked to Mexico's drug cartels murdered around 1,500 people in 2006 and 2,700 people in 2007, with the 2008 death toll soaring to more than 6,000.
Nearly 3,600 people have died so far this year, according to a tally kept by the Mexico City daily El Universal.
Since taking office in December 2006, President Felipe Calderon has deployed more than 45,000 soldiers and 20,000 federal police officers across Mexico in an attempt to crush the cartels.
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