Priest slain over ‘rent’

A PRIEST in El Salvador was shot dead while he slept, apparently for not paying protection fees.

Constantino Barrera, bishop of the Sonsonate diocese near the Guatemala border, said that Father Cecilio Perez Cruz’s body was found in his room with three bullet wounds. Next to the priest was a note signed by the Mara Salvatrucha gang that said: “He didn’t pay the rent.”

El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world. The murder rate last year was 50.3 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.