HispanicBusiness

The group of cyberactivists known as Anonymous blocked access to two websites linked to the upcoming visit to Mexico by Pope Benedict XVI.

The website of the Achdiocese of Mexico was down for a couple of hours Tuesday due to the operation that was identified online as #opFariseo, and something similar happened to the site of the Institute of Communications and Philosophy (Comfil).

"Hacked system. The POPE is not welcome, out out!!!!!" said the text that was posted on the Comfil website, usually devoted to teaching philosophy.

In its profile on the social network Facebook, Anonymous Hispano said the Comfil site was "hacked for supporting Benedict XVI."

Benedict is scheduled to visit Mexico Friday through Monday, prior to a three-day trip to Cuba.

In a video that was posted on YouTube, the hackers said that the pope's visit comes at the start of the campaign ahead of Mexico's July 1 presidential election, and that it seeks to benefit the ruling-party candidate. The Roman Catholic church, the video said, seeks "to keep the population shrouded in lies."

According to Anonymous, the pope will not see either the poverty or the violence that are ravaging Mexico. He will instead encounter "a country of lies and facades where everything will apparently be wonderful," the cyberactivists said.