More arrests of indigenous evangelicals in Mexico for not collaborating with Catholic parties

Wednesday, 21 April 2010 17:54

MEXICO DC, Voice of the Martyrs 19/04/2010 - Edition ProtestanteDigital.com

Five indigenous Zapotec evangelical Christians were arrested because they refused to cooperate in Catholic religious festivals Teotlasco community, municipality of Ixtlan de Juarez, Oaxaca. Four of them are deprived of their liberty. The authorities threatened to expel all of them, along with their families.

The authorities of Ixtlan de Juarez, Maximino Martinez Manzano head Evangelicals want to ban for refusing to sign a document that forces them to develop acts that go against their faith. This happens despite the fact that previously the State Human Rights Commission of Oaxaca determined that the document is a violation of individual guarantees, as issued Recommendation No. 15/2009.

On 18 March, officials from State and Municipal Government tried to resolve the situation, but some Christians refused to sign the final agreement was obtained at a meeting held on the same day, saying it violated their individual rights and freedom of worship.

Zapotec Indians who were jailed are: Pedro Martinez Jerome, Marcos Hernández García, Luis Hernández García, Jaime Andrés Martínez Hernández Hernández. The first would have already recovered their freedom, but they are all sentenced to leave the community for the "crime" of being evangelical Christians.

INJURED FAMILY
The affected families are fearful that the villagers to retaliate against at least 100 Protestants who live in the town, because they are often incited by the authorities to expel them and continue removing them from the patterns of support offered by SEDESOL, through the Oportunidades program.

The more than 25 families who profess a faith other than Catholicism also expressed concern for children and young people who could lose the school year if they were expelled because they would take refuge in nearby villages, so they called on the SEP holder, Alonso Lujambio Irazábal to take matters into because they are not the only students who would be affected in this way.

The NGO Voice of the Martyrs continues the process to formally invite the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion of the UN, Asma Jahangir, to visit Mexico and make delivery of the list with more than 200 cases of discrimination and religious intolerance are registered in Mexico in the current administration.