Mexican church officials have helped arrange a truce between 2 warring drug cartels

Roman Catholic churchmen have helped arrange a truce between two warring drug cartels whose turf wars have blooded the state of Guerrero in southern Mexico, a priest said Thursday.

It is the latest in a series of attempts by bishops and priests to get cartels to talk to each other in hopes of reducing bloody turf battles. The implicit assumption is that the cartels will divide up the territories where they charge extortion fees and traffic drugs, without so much killing.

Rev. José Filiberto Velázquez, who had knowledge of the negotiations but did not participate in them, said the talks involved leaders of the notoriously violent Familia Michoacana cartel and the Tlacos gang, which is also known as the Cartel of the Mountain.