Before the Sunday-morning service on February 22, pastor Constantino Varas sensed something was wrong.
Several members of his church, Iglesia Bautista Gracia & Amor in Guadalajara, Mexico, sent text messages reporting problems getting to the building. These were not the expected disruptions caused by that morning’s half marathon but rather narcobloqueos, or blockades consisting of burning cars, trucks, and buses set on fire by Mexican drug cartels.
“I told them to try to go back home, stay safe, and pray,” Varas said. By the pastor’s count, at least 40 people—nearly half the congregation—couldn’t make it to church that morning due to the roadblocks. Although this type of disturbance is not uncommon—criminal cartels have used narcobloqueos for years as a strategy to demonstrate their local power and as a response to police operations—the extent of the blockades on Sunday was exceptional.
Hours earlier, an operation involving the Mexican Air Force and special forces killed Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, leader of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) in Tapalpa, about 80 miles southwest of Guadalajara. Security forces also killed six other members of the criminal organization, according to a statement from Mexico’s defense secretary. The CJNG is one of the most powerful crime organization in the country, with more than 15,000 members. Last year, the US State Department officially designated it a terrorist organization.
The cartel’s response began just hours later, with narcobloqueos and confrontations with authorities across 20 of Mexico’s 31 states. Armed cartel members defended their fiery blockades and clashed with police and armed forces who were trying to clear the roads.
By Monday, authorities acknowledged that at least 25 members of the National Guard and 30 operatives from criminal groups had been killed. As the capital city of the Jalisco state, birthplace of the CJNG, Guadalajara was at the epicenter of the violence.
Although only 50 church members occupied the padded wooden chairs of Gracia & Amor church on Sunday, the 10 a.m. service still began on time. Half an hour in, as the worship band played “Confiando Plenamente en Dios” (Trusting Fully in God), people heard gunshots outside.
Varas made a series of urgent decisions. Church members locked the doors to the church to prevent any armed assailants from entering. Staff called on Sunday school teachers to calm the children. The social media coordinator sent out a prayer request for the city on the church’s Facebook page.
When Varas stepped up to the microphone for the sermon a little later, he first asked the congregation to take out their phones and send messages to family members to let them know everyone was safe. Before preaching his prepared sermon on 1 Thessalonians 2:13–19, he led the church in prayer for the population of Guadalajara; for the governor of Jalisco, Pablo Lemus; and for Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum.
After the service, the congregation decided to remain in the church for another hour, waiting for news about what was happening outside. The worship band played again, and people took turns praying. At the end, they left in groups. Each family that departed the church committed to informing the others about the route they had taken and the street conditions.
“When I left, there was no one on the streets. Everything was deserted,” Varas said. Earlier that morning, while they were in church, the federal government had issued a red alert, equivalent to a curfew.
The curfew was lifted later that day. Yet schools remained closed for part of the week, and some stores stayed shut. “The city came to a standstill unlike anything we saw even during the pandemic,” Varas said. “There is an apparent calm, waiting for trouble.”
Mexican Christians often face violence caused by drug trafficking. Street evangelists and pastors are aware that sentinels working for local drug dealers frequently follow their steps. Young people in poor neighborhoods are targets of the cartels’ forced recruitment. It’s dangerous for everyone who lives in areas under the influence of cartels, but life can be particularly risky for those, like church leaders, whose role is to promote peace. The widespread presence of criminal groups has led Mexico to become the 30th most dangerous place to be a Christian, according to the World Watch List.
Yet even those who are always under pressure of gang violence noted that the scale of this week’s events was unprecedented. Christians from different denominations united in prayer for the country and sought to support those who suffered from the blockades and the clashes.
“All of this comes at a very high emotional cost,” said Israel Gonzalez, a psychologist and pastor of Iglesia Peña de Horeb in Monterrey. “Being under a gun’s sight, being in the middle of a road blocked by trucks on fire is terrible. All this and not knowing if there’s something better ahead is terrible. Our churches need to help those who don’t know Jesus to find hope in this landscape.”
In a statement published on social media, bishop Enrique Treviño Cruz of the Anglican Diocese of Cuernavaca urged Christians to seek peace. “Jesus never promised us that life in this world would be a bed of roses. We are exposed to moments of affliction and conflict, but the certainty that Jesus triumphed over all evil should fill us with hope to persevere in prayer but also in action,” he wrote. “I especially urge you to encourage one another to remain in fervent prayer with the firm hope of finding the loving response of our Lord.”
Another concern among churches is the spread of false information, which results in further tension and panic buying. Varas noted that on Monday, the city’s gas stations were empty, causing many to buy and stockpile fuel “out of fear of what the future might hold.”
The College of Bishops of the Methodist Church of Mexico called for peace and asked believers not to spread fake news.
“We exhort our churches to remain united, to avoid spreading fear and disinformation, and to be instruments of reconciliation in their surroundings, ‘endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace’ (Ephesians 4:3),” the group said in a statement.
Varas called on believers to take as their own God’s promise to Jerusalem in Zephaniah 3:15–16: “The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy. The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm. On that day they will say to Jerusalem, ‘Do not fear, Zion; do not let your hands hang limp.’”
“In this time of crisis, we hang on to God through prayer,” said Varas. “But I think this situation gives us an opportunity as Christians to transform prayer into a culture, not merely something to cling to during a crisis.”
