Gunmen in Mexico have shot dead a Catholic priest who was an outspoken advocate for indigenous rights and who had condemned the violence plaguing his community. Father Marcelo Pérez was killed after celebrating Mass in the southern state of Chiapas on Sunday, the prosecutor's office said.

Rev. Marcelo Pérez was shot dead by two gunmen when he was in his van, just after he had finished celebrating Mass, the state prosecutors' office said.

A Mexican Catholic priest was killed on Sunday in the southern state of Chiapas after officiating a mass, his religious order and authorities said, marking the latest death in a recent wave of violence in the area.

Catholic priest Marcelo Perez, an activist for Indigenous peoples and farm laborers in southern Mexico, was killed on Sunday. The prosecutors' office in the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, in the state of Chiapas,