Mexican drug trafficking suspended for pope's visit

This Friday, Pope Benedict is headed for the state of Guanajuato, Mexico (blue state in the middle) to say mass at a statue of Christ erected in defiance by Catholics during a conflict called the Cristero War (1926-29) when they opposed the central government’s attempts--derived from the 1910 Mexican Revolution--to separate church & state. The pope probably wants to reignite that dispute. The news reported that drug cartels announced they will suspend their operations during his visit and speculated it’s because most cartel members are Catholics. A more reasonable explanation is the cartel members will be otherwise engaged picking up the pope at the airport & taking him in their limousines with the other politicians to the mass.