|
‘Caciques’ Grab Evangelicals’ Land in Mitziton
| Maria Lopez Tasajo, left, is one of the
Evangelicals who is affected.
|
On April 1, after two years of peaceful coexistence between traditionalists and Evangelicals that followed some nine years of violence in Mitziton, a town of 800 in the municipality of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Mexico’s southernmost state of Chiapas, sources in Mitziton report that conflict has resumed with the newly elected community president, Salvador Hernández Jiménez. This president, who began his year-long term on January 1, instructed a mob of some 200 traditionalist Catholics wielding hammers and pliers to knock down fences that border farmlands of 70 Evangelical families – an act that allowed bosses, or caciques, to lay claim to Evangelical lands. Most of Mitziton’s Evangelicals were affected.
On April 2, traditionalists and Evangelicals signed an agreement to allow Evangelicals to worship and the community would have rebuilt the fences. But the village’s general assembly failed to recognize the agreement and fired the community commission that signed the treaty with the Evangelicals. Early the next morning, Evangelicals heard machine-gun fire in nearby mountains that they took as a threat against them. (Photo: Catholic church in Mitziton.)
This recent conflict resulted after newly installed local authorities demanded that Evangelicals help pay for community festivals that honored traditionalist Catholic idols and images. For reasons of conscience, Evangelicals refused to take part in or pay for these costly festivals that involve drinking large amounts of alcohol. Other leaders involved in the fence destruction include rural judge Pascual de la Cruz Heredia and an assistant, Agustín Pérez Gómez.
| Martina’s home with damaged fence
|
Without fences that mark off land tracts that each family depends upon to grow food, the Evangelical families are left only with their houses and no means to support themselves. In addition, Evangelicals in Mitziton are not allowed to gather firewood for cooking.
Traditionalists argue that the issue is not one of religious freedom but of Evangelical refusal to pay for the costly festivals. Mitziton officials told Evangelicals that each family paying 7,000 pesos – $700, or eight months’ income – would get around the problem. But even after the Evangelicals gathered the money, the same local authorities rejected it.
Martina, who attends Restauración Church, prayed for each person in the mob as she watched them tear down the fences. Francisco Heredia, who pastors Alas de Águila Church, said that the believers are calm and rejoice that the Lord is with them. The believers report that they’ve seen God provide for their needs in this trying time.
Christians in Mitziton ask for prayer that this conflict be resolved and that God would use and train each government official to seek the well-being of Evangelicals and traditionalists alike. Each Evangelical family in this community needs strength and courage.
Return to Latin America main page |
| 