Cardinal Ocampo, who was born in Mexico on 10 November 1926, a few months after the beginning of a period of strong anti-Catholic persecution and ordained a priest on 23 September 1950, had been formed in difficult years for the Mexican Church: he knew the path of suffering of the Christians of his country and for these very reasons, having first become a Bishop in 1970 and then a Cardinal in 1991, he promoted the cause for the beatification of the Mexican martyrs.
Cardinal Posadas Ocampo was killed by a group of armed men on 24 May 1993, while he was waiting to welcome the Apostolic Nuncio who was arriving in Guadalajara to attend the celebration of the memory of the Mexican martyrs of Jalisco: the prelate was shot 14 times in the chest. It was later discovered that the instigators of the murder were Juan Francisco Murillo Díaz and Édgar Nicolás Villegas, prominent members of the Tijuana Cartel: they ordered the murder of the cardinal for his tireless fight against drug trafficking. He was known for his commitment: he had repeatedly condemned organised crime and drug traffickers.
