Log in to your Account

There has been a dramatic rise in the number of violent deaths in Mexico this month as two of the largest drug cartels have declared a war on one another. Six Mission Society missionaries and their children serve in Monterrey, Mexico, which has been an active field since 1987.

More than 16,000 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels after assuming office in December 2006. Ciudad Juarez, which is located across the border from El Paso, Texas, is one of the most violent cities in the world. More than 2,600 people were killed in 2009 in that town alone. The 1.3 million residents experienced 16,000 car thefts and 1,900 carjackings. It is estimated that as many as 100,000 people have left the city in recent years.

Ron and Bonnie Hipwell, Mission Society missionaries to Mexico, write, “The situation continues to deteriorate here. The word is that the confrontations between the various drug cartels that have been happening along the border and places to the immediate south are now ready to explode this weekend in Monterrey. Already numerous police and public safety offices around the city have experienced attacks with grenades in the last few days….Saturday three police officers in San Nicholas, the municipality which is located in the northern edge of the metropolitan area, where ambushed and killed in the patrol car while on duty….So we are standing firm, claiming Mexico for Jesus, and taking authority over the enemy through the blood of Christ.”

Please pray for this situation and for an end to the violence that is claiming so many innocent lives.