ALC NEWS SERVICE E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org
PERU
After 13 years in jail, Evangelical unfairly accused of terrorism is released
LIMA, Perú, February 3 (ALC). Carrying the Bible in one hand and a bag with his personal belongings in the other Walter Cubas Baltasar, an evangelical unfairly accused of terrorism who spent 13 years in jail, was released from the Miguel Castro Castro jail last Wednesday.
"I give thanks to God for his freedom and all the individuals and institutions who worked for justice and human rights, all of those who prayed for my freedom, the beautiful letters of encouragement I received," were the first words he said as he was caught up in embraces from his family and friends.
A court presided by Judge Water Yactayo granted him conditional freedom 13 years after he was detained on alleged terrorism charges.
Cubas, arrested in Lima on January 20, 1993, was accused of forming part of a special Shining Path hit squad and having painted walls with the slogan "Yanquis out of the Persian Gulf," with the symbol of the Shining Path and the initials PCP (Peruvian Communist Party).
In 1993 he was tried by a court of hooded judges and sentenced to several life sentences. He was taken to the Yanamayo jail in the Peruvian highlands where he was held for five years. He was then tried in regular court but the judges determined that the evidence from the police investigation was irregular and, against all predictions, condemned him to 16 years in jail.
Cubas has always manifested his rejection of
terrorism and violence and his commitment to his Evangelical Christian faith. Different people and Christians institutions at a national and international level interceded on his behalf such as Amnesty International which adopted him as a "prisoner of conscience."
"We give thanks to God for each of the
institutions and individuals that supported his case, for all the letters he received while in prison," said Wuille Ruiz, of the Peace and Hope Association.
"We pray for Walter and all those deprived of
their freedom who demand justice and for those who make it possible. Let us not let the lack of a stamp or a signature, or badly written names or human mistakes cost us part of our life," he said.
CHILE
Chaplain of the La Moneda Palace was elected bishop of the Methodist Church
SANTIAGO, Chile, February 1 (ALC). The
Evangelical chaplain of the Government Palace, Neftali Aravena Bravo is now the new bishop of the Chilean Methodist Church after close 170 delegates meeting in the "Loyola" spirituality house in this city elected him with 61 percent of the vote.
Aravena replaces Pedro Grandon Seguel, age 53, who received a standing ovation from participants when he delivered his final report and called on the Church to develop a better relationship with other bodies and denominations.
The outgoing bishop said not to "fear a new Pentecostal revival like the one in 1909 in Valparaíso that ended in a division and gave rise to the largest Pentecostal movement Chile has had to date."
Once the results were known, the new authority of the Methodist Church Aravena voiced his gratitude for the confidence he had received. "Now, I hope to follow the pastoral foot print left by Bishop Pedro Grandon," he said.
The Assembly was attended by Presbyter Viviana Pinto of Argentina, representing the Council of Evangelical Methodist Churches of Latin America, among other Methodist leaders.
The Council of Bishops and Presidents of the Methodist Church in Latin America and the Caribbean sent a congratulatory letter. "May the grace of God direct you and allow you to be an instrument of blessing for the beloved Chilean Methodist Church."
The letter also congratulated Pedro Grandon for his work, his testimony and commitment with the Church and the Lord. Many blessings for all", said the message signed by the president Bishop Juan A. Vera Mendez.
MEXICO
Writer Carlos Monsiváis defends lay state before President Fox
By Leopoldo Cervantes-Ortiz
MEXICO CITY, February 1 (ALC). The
fundamentalism of the Mexican right "has lost the cultural battles in the country one after the other," said Protestant writer Carlos Monsivais, who staunchly defended a lay state and public education when he received the National Sciences and Arts Prize in the area of Linguistics and Literature.
Monsivais spoke in the name of the other award winners a few days after reading a speech in homage of Benito Juarez in Oaxaca as part of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's campaign for the presidency. Other prize winners included painter Leonora Carrington and writers Elena Poniatowska and José María Pérez Gay.
The writer, who spoke before President Vicente Fox and other authorities, threw barbs at the government and vigorously defended a lay state and public education. The Mexican president had to listen to Monsivais for more than 30 minutes, according to La Jornada.
He spoke harshly of the "insolence" of Government Secretary Carlos Abascal and pointed to his Roman Catholic friendly ideas and said that "as soon as he begins to speak he sets up his virtual pulpit" and demanded the recovery of a complete freedom of creeds as "a space that encourages the link between the human being and their transcendent destiny."
The writer said that Abascal as citizen has the right to proclaim the advantages of his faith, but not as secretary of State and he emphasized that a Lay state deposits the ethical values of a non theocratic society in education and the law without failing to recognize the role of religions.
He also questioned the perspective of the "ruling minorities" regarding public education. "It is considered the refuge of those who cannot avoid it, the unrecognized of always, those who lack access to the benefits of high technology and the school company of those who will be powerful because their parents already are."
He said that one of the urgent tasks in Mexico is to claim public schools. "To insist on its deterioration, as is done from the more favored classes (.) is to invent the spectacle of decadence of those who have never lived the peak," he concluded.
BRAZIL
President Lula confirms presence in World Council of Churches Assembly
BRASILIA, Brasil, February 1 (ALC). Brazilian
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will attend the IX World Council of Churches Assembly on February 17, speaking before more than 4,000 delegates, observers and journalists from 347 Protestant and Orthodox Churches from 120 countries around the world, the secretary of the presidency said Wednesday.
The confirmation of Lula's presence was
communicated to the new secretary general of the Council of Christian Churches of Brazil (CONIC), the Rev. Western Clay Peixoto, who assumed the position today in Brasilia. The information was immediately transmitted to the local organizing committee, based in the city of Porto Alegre.
Lula was expected to attend the Assembly's inaugural ceremony on February 14 in Porto Alegre. The Brazilian president received the WCC invitation during a meeting he held May 12, 2003 with then secretary general of the World Council of Churches, Pastor Konrad Raiser and a committee of Brazilian Church> leaders.
"President Lula has been very successful in
international meetings. He is a good speaker and will not give a mere protocol greeting to the Assembly but a message with a great deal of content," said Lutheran Pastor Ervino Schmidt, outgoing CONIC secretary general. (061/2006/ecu/pers/eb).
ARGENTINA
Lutheran Pastor said that foreign debt crimes should not go unpunished
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, February 1 (ALC). Many crimes have been and continue to be committed around the foreign debt: fraud, corruption, environmental destruction, enslavement, infanticide and death, said Argentine Pastor Angel F Furlan. These crimes "cannot go unpunished," he said.
Furlan said that a serious investigation of the debt made it possible to conclude that the true creditors "are us, the people and those responsible for the debt genocide should pay rather than complain."
The debt is responsible for an ongoing genocide that continues to take more human lives than the aberrant crimes of the military dictatorship, he said, after calling it a "fundamental tool in a model of domination."
Furlan, responsible for the Advocacy Program on the Illegitimate Foreign Debt of the Lutheran World Federation, participated last week in the World Social Forum held in Caracas. In his opinion, those responsible for these crimes should be declared guilty. "It is not enough that they give up their aim to collect an illegitimate debt, but they should repair and compensate the damage they have caused," he said.
He said it is not possible to build a more just society on a foundation of impunity, on a foundation of pardon for the powerful. "The debt should be audited, investigated, judged and together with it all those who participated in its perverse mechanism," he said.
Pastor Furlan and a group of citizens lead by
Nobel Peace Laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel, have presented a judicial resource against the payment that the Argentine government made to the International Monetary Fund. "This payment points to a consecration of impunity and we cannot accept it," he said.
He lamented that incoming Bolivian President Evo Morales limited himself to calling for the condonation of the debt without interpreting the clamor of his people and the people's of South America "who do not demand condonation but justice, for a 'never again'".
"If we Churches want to be faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ we must love the truth that brings justice (.) We Christians must insist on the fact that nothing good can be built on a foundation of illegitimacy, injustice, usury, corruption and impunity," concluded the Lutheran leader. -------------------- Latin American and Caribbean News Agency P.O. Box 14-225 Lima 14 Peru Telefax (511) 242-7312 E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org http: //www.alcpress.org