A group of 47 displaced Protestants from Chiapas State were refused re-entry to their village in January, despite state government promises that village leaders had agreed to uphold religious freedom.
The Protestants, who were forcibly expelled from Buenavista Bahuitz village in Chiapas State in 2012, were initially told that they could only return to their homes if they converted to Roman Catholicism and participated in Roman Catholic religious activities.
Government promise
According to Luis Herrera, director of the Co-ordination of Christian Organisations of Chiapas (COOC), the group later received assurances from the state government that they had negotiated the return of the displaced group and that their religious freedom would be protected. The government promise of action came after a month-long peaceful sit-in in front of the state government palace in Tuxtla Gutierrez by the Buenavista Bahuitz group and other communities of forcibly displaced Protestants. The sit-in ended on 1 December 2014 after the state government made verbal commitments to address their situation.
The group set out for Buenavista Bahuitz in the early hours of 20 January by bus, accompanied by some state government officials. Upon arrival at the village, they were met by village leaders who demanded that the Protestants convert to Catholicism before they would be permitted to stay. Herrara noted that the government officials present appeared to be taken by surprise by the village leaders’ stance. Negotiations were held on the spot and the village leaders eventually agreed to allow the Protestants to stay if they paid a fine which Herrera described as ‘extremely high’. The group declined and went to the capital of Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutierrez, where they sought refuge in the Jesus is the Way Church.
Saying no to festivals
These events follow a series of serious religious freedom violations and forced displacements in Chiapas in January. In early January, in the municipality of San Juan Chamula, tensions erupted after Protestants in the village of Las Ollas declined to participate in festivals celebrating the Roman Catholic patron saint of Mexico, the Virgin of Guadelupe. According to the Organización de Pueblos Evangélicos de los Altos de Chiapas (OPEACH), the villagers had been compelled to pay financial contributions to Catholic festivals in the village over the past year, but had decided in December 2014 that they would no longer do so. They were subsequently attacked, beaten and had their water and electricity cut off on 8 January 2015. OPEACH stated that the village leaders also threatened to bar the Protestant children from attending school and block Protestant families from receiving state benefits.
On 14 January, a group of ten Protestants was forcibly displaced from the community of La Florecilla in San Cristóbal de las Casas municipality after having their water and electricity supplies interrupted and after being physically attacked, arbitrarily imprisoned and given a deadline by village authorities to renounce their faith or be forced to leave.
Local religious leaders in San Cristóbal de las Casas, who have offered refuge to the families, said that the problem had been going on since 2011 and that numerous complaints to the municipal and state governments had been made, but that no action had been taken to protect the rights of the group or to uphold the rule of law.
