wfn.org | Chiapas: Hope For Easing Religious Persecution

[APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com]

August 30, 2000
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD

New Hope For Easing Religious Persecution in Mexico

Chiapas, Mexico.      In a Mexican town torn by 
decades of religious strife, Seventh-day Adventists 
held a Saturday worship service on August 19 for the 
first time in more than two months.  The service 
took place outdoors, next to the ruins of one of 14 
homes destroyed in March this year when the 
village's religious majority expelled the group, 
along with more than 60 other Protestant families. 
	
The Adventists, from the village of  Plan de Ayala 
in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, are among 
an estimated 30,000 Protestants in the region who 
have been driven from their homes over the years 
because of religious differences and for refusing to 
participate in community religious festivals. 
	
"I don't have a house, but I trust in God," said 
Adventist Church member Juan Vasquez Alvarez, 
according to Associated Press reports.
	
Tensions between Protestants and Roman Catholics in 
Plan de Ayala have eased as a result of a recent 
agreement brokered by state officials allowing 
Protestants to perform community service in exchange 
for exemptions from local religious festivals. This 
agreement has been written into the town's land 
rights law and is the first of its kind at this 
level, says Hortensio Vasquez, an Adventist Church 
leader in the region.
	
"Everything was calm and orderly as the Adventists 
returned to the village," says Vasquez, who adds 
that the municipality and state has promised to 
rebuild the houses destroyed in the conflict earlier 
this year. 
	
The agreement that paved the way for the Protestants 
to return to Plan de Ayala includes a provision for 
all town meetings to be held on a day other than 
Saturday-the Adventist's day of worship. The 
agreement also exempts religious duties-such as 
participation in Roman Catholic festivals-from 
mandatory community service. 
	
"We now have religious freedom," says Vasquez. He 
reports that the agreement was the result of a 
meeting attended by religious leaders and state and 
local officials, where all participants "accepted 
the fact that everyone in the town can worship 
according to whatever religion they choose." 
	
Chiapas has a 30-year history of violence between 
Roman Catholics and Protestants which has left 
hundreds dead and thousands displaced from their 
villages. On August 20, Chiapas residents elected 
Pablo Salazar as their new governor-the first non-
Roman Catholic governor in the state's history-and 
he has promised renewed efforts to promote peace 
between religious groups in the area. (253/2000)