ELLIS HEASLEY, of UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW, calls for action and prayer over the plight of more than 100 members of a Protestant church made homeless because of their faith…
London, UK
Authorities in Mexico’s Hidalgo State had every chance to stop over 100 Protestants being made homeless last month.
They could have intervened in 2015, when members of the group were banned from performing their assigned acts of community service, thereby losing their access to healthcare, government benefit programmes and education.
An undated photo of families displaced from Rancho Nuevo and Coamila in Mexico. PICTURE: Courtesy of CSW
“[N]one of these incidents nor many others over almost a decade of harassment of members of the Great Commission Baptist Church in the villages of Rancho Nuevo and Coamila were enough to provoke any meaningful intervention from the municipal or state governments, and it is because of this that over 100 Protestants are now living in an auditorium in the municipal seat of Huejutla de los Reyes.”
Or perhaps they could have acted in 2018, when village authorities informed the Protestants that their children would no longer be welcome at the local state-run school, even going as far as to fire a teacher who tried to defend their constitutional right to an education.
Or maybe they might have finally done something in December, 2022, when Maria Concepción Hernández Hernández was tied to a tree, violently beaten and subsequently hospitalised by a group of local leaders after she visited a plot of land that she owns to cut down two trees at the request of her neighbour.
But they didn’t; none of these incidents nor many others over almost a decade of harassment of members of the Great Commission Baptist Church in the villages of Rancho Nuevo and Coamila were enough to provoke any meaningful intervention from the municipal or state governments, and it is because of this that over 100 Protestants are now living in an auditorium in the municipal seat of Huejutla de los Reyes.
Tensions had been rising in the area for several weeks prior to the mass displacement. In March, village authorities arbitrarily detained Pastor Rogelio Hernández Baltazar and several other leaders of the Great Commission Baptist Church, holding them for 48 hours before government officials negotiated their release, which was agreed to only after a heavy fine was imposed on the church leaders themselves.
In early April, those same authorities sanctioned the confiscation of five plots of land belonging to the church, cutting down trees, removing stones and destroying crops. Later that month, on 27th April, they took things further still, cutting off the Protestants’ electricity, vandalising and blocking access to their church and some of their homes, and posting guards at the entry points to both villages.
It was at this point that 139 Protestants – among them five infants and 70 children under the age of 17 – fled to Huejutla de los Reyes, where they have been living ever since. A further 38 adults who were working outside the village at the time have also since been prevented from returning and have now joined the larger group in the shelter.
The situation in Rancho Nuevo and Coamila may have reached an extreme tipping point, but sadly the experience of these communities is far from unique.
Indigenous communities in Mexico are governed under the Law of Uses and Customs, which is intended to protect their right to maintain cultural and traditional methods of governance, provided that these do not encroach on the human rights guarantees – such as that of the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) – enshrined within the Mexican Constitution and the international covenants to which Mexico is party.
In reality, the Mexican Government does little to ensure that these protections are upheld, and as such in many communities it is common for a religious majority – often Roman Catholic – to use the Law of Uses and Customs as a means of enforcing religious uniformity. Frequent tactics include the denial of access to basic services such as water or electricity, the imposition of illegal fines on those who refuse to participate in activities associated with the religious majority, and, usually after months or years of escalating violations, the forced displacement of entire communities.
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The Protestants of Rancho Nuevo and Coamila were not the first to suffer this, and unless something changes in the Mexican government’s handling of the right to FoRB they will not be the last.
At every level the authorities must do far more to end the culture of impunity that has become entrenched not just in Hidalgo but in multiple states across the country, including Chiapas, Guerrero, Jalisco, Oaxaca and Puebla where violations are also especially severe. More must be done to improve understanding of FoRB at the municipal and local levels in particular, and state authorities must finally establish a culture of rule of law in which action is taken to hold those responsible for violations such as these to account.
As ever, our part as Christians is to pray; pray for those who have been displaced from Rancho Nuevo and Coamila, that they would be able to return to their homes swiftly and without fear of further hostility from their neighbours and community leaders; pray also for authorities in Hidalgo state and others across Mexico, that they would understand the gravity of situations such as these and do far more to ensure that they are not repeated; and finally pray for the nation of Mexico, that it would become a country in which FoRB is truly championed and respected as is promised in its constitution.
Ellis Heasley is public affairs officer at UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW.
