Baby Jesus statue ‘cries blood’ leaving locals convinced it’s a message from God about Mexico’s violent crime

A STATUE of baby Jesus has shocked locals as it appears to cry blood – and they believe it could be a message from God about rising crime levels.

Residents of a rural village in Acapulco in the south-western Mexican state of Guerrero claimed that this is the fourth occasion that the Jesus statue has cried tears of blood in 2019.

According to local media, the first time the ceramic statue, which is kept in a private residence, cried blood was on New Year’s Day.

Residents believe that the statue is expressing unhappiness at the soaring crime levels in the borough, which has an average of 111 murders for every 100,000 inhabitants, according to the Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice.

Local resident Soledad Natividad Flores told Elnuevo Diario: “A lot of people have said that this is being done by the Devil while others believe that it is a message from God.

“The truth is, we are convinced that it cried, even when people were holding it.”

SCEPTICAL PRIEST

Residents also claimed that they did not want to carry the statue to a church for verification because they were scared of removing it.

An unnamed priest in Tambuco said that representatives of the Catholic Church will investigate the claims to make sure that no one is taking advantage of devotees.

He also admitted that there could be a “rational explanation because not everything is a spiritual phenomenon”.

There are many possibly explanations for the tears of blood, including the red liquid being planted on the statue.

TEARFUL HOAX

It wouldn’t be the first time such an event has been staged, according to The Conversation.

There was one in Canada in 1986 where a Virgin Mary statue its owner claimed would ‘cry’, ‘sweat’ and ‘bleed’, had oil and blood from the owner himself put on it as a hoax.

Meanwhile in Italy in 2006, another statue of the Virgin Mary said to have cried blood had also had its owner’s blood dripped onto it.

He was prosecuted by police for a “case of high sacrilege”, Catholic News Agency reports.

Other cases have included the use of red paint or water placed on a statue’s face.

In 2017 churchgoers were shocked when a statue of Jesus moved his head during a service and the event was captured in a video said to have been filmed in the church of Santa Ana in Tepetitlan, in the state of Jalisco, western Mexico.

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