MEXICO : TRADITIONALIST CATHOLICS DEMOLISH ANOTHER CHURCH
7/26/07 Mexico (Compass Direct News) Chiapas state officials arrested 14 traditionalist Catholics following the destruction on Sunday (July 22) of an evangelical church in a community of San Juan Chamula, near San Cristobal de las Casas, in Mexicos Chiapas state.
State Public Security officers arrested several of the traditionalist Catholics, who practice a blend of traditional Mayan religion and Roman Catholicism, for tearing down Prince of Peace Pentecostal Church in Nishnamtic, evangelical pastor and attorney Esdras Alonso Gonzalez told Compass.
In retaliation, Nishnamtic village bosses or caciques on Sunday jailed five evangelicals; those officials in turn were arrested early Monday morning and the Christians freed, according to the state attorney generals office.
Undaunted, according to the attorney generals office, Nishnamtic traditionalist Catholics on Monday (July 23) then illegally locked up seven evangelical women, including one carrying her 9-month-old baby, in the municipal jail of San Juan Chamula. Authorities in turn rescued the women and infant, the attorney generals office said in a statement.
The seven women were detained on Monday morning by traditionalist Catholics in response to the rescue operation of the five evangelicals in Nishnamtic, according to the attorney generals office. For this reason, it added, the state government arrested the additional village officials.
In all, according to the state attorney generals office, Public Security officers arrested 14 traditionalist Catholics, including seven Nishnamtic officials.
The Chiapas attorney generals statement makes no mention of the church demolition, saying only that in coordination with Ministry of Public Security officers it rescued the evangelicals from traditionalist Catholics who had jailed them for refusing to pay the fees for the patron saint festivals of the town.
For this reason, the statement continues, the traditionalist Catholic authorities had denied them [the evangelicals] access to potable water and education services.
Alonso noted, The government statement doesnt make any mention of it, but the arrest of the traditionalist Catholic caciques has to do with the destruction of the church. At three in the afternoon they went to destroy the church, and they jailed the brethren until they were rescued.
The attorney generals office notes that state officials were able to negotiate peacefully with the indigenous authorities of Nishnamtic for the release of the evangelicals.
Alonso said Sundays attack was the second church destroyed by traditionalist Catholics in San Juan Chamula this year; on April 14, they demolished a Pentecostal church in Las Ollas.
Los Pozos Woes
In the village of Los Pozos , also near San Cristobal , state officials are ratcheting up pressure on traditionalist Catholic caciques who have continued to defy an agreement to stop harassing Christians.
Town officials had signed an agreement on April 23 pledging to reconnect water lines they had cut off from evangelicals, to stop withholding government food aid for children, and to allow outside Christians to visit. All of those provisions continue to be violated, Alonso said.
Theyve not reconnected the water of the brothers, and a few days ago they didnt allow a visit from pastors and others that came they closed off the road, Alonso said. Theyre not respecting what was signed, but the government is visiting them to speak with them, and theyre speaking more strongly with them.
Children have continued to go without food aid from the federal SEDESOL program, as the caciques have conditioned distribution upon paying a fine, he said.
There are government officials going out for inspections regarding the federal aid to children theyre inspecting whats being distributed, Alonso said. Before, the caciques were charging a 300 peso fine. Now the government has sent delegations telling them not to withhold food from these minors.
The state intervention has cleared the way for representatives of the Christians to begin talks with the town bosses about restoring water lines, he added.
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