4 bodies found in Michoacán identified as Catholic evangelists

Michoacán Police yesterday reported they found four bodies in an advanced state of decomposition and with visible signs of torture in San Juan de los Plátanos, about 10 miles west of Apatzingán, Michoacán.

The four young men were identified as members of a Catholic evangelism group, authorities in Michoacán said.

Former La Ruana parish priest José Luis Segura Barragán said one of the victims, Jesús Ayala, worked for the former leader of the self-defense forces.

Segura said that they belonged to a group called the Arco Iris (Rainbow) that proselytized in communities.

"This tragedy touches my heart deeply, because I spent time with them for three years, and I accompanied them in their evangelism retreats and their missions to small hamlets," Segura wrote on social networks.

"I believe that it's time that we take seriously organized crime and the government, useless or complicit. We cannot put up with any more murders, executions, abductions, kidnappings, extortions and the other cruel and destructive actions that the criminals commit against society and the Catholic Church." he added in another post.