Father Marcelo Perez, 51, was shot dead by two gunmen just after he had finished celebrating Mass, officials said.

Father Marcelo Pérez, an Indigenous Tzotzil priest and peace activist, was murdered after celebrating Sunday Mass in Mexico's southern Chiapas state.

Mexican authorities have arrested the alleged murderer of a Catholic priest and prominent human rights defender whose killing triggered international condemnation, officials announced Tuesday.

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.

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, said the religious leader was shot dead by two gunmen when he was in his van.

Hundreds of people have turned out to mourn Catholic priest Marcelo Pérez, an activist for Indigenous peoples and farm laborers who was killed in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas.

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.

Mexican police have arrested a man accused of murdering a Roman Catholic priest and human rights campaigner in the southern state of Chiapas. Father Marcelo Pérez was killed on Sunday after celebrating Mass at his church in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas.