Head of Town in Mexico Sends Mob to Attack Christians

HEAD OF TOWN IN MEXICO SENDS MOB TO BEAT, ABDUCT CHRISTIANS [Excerpts]

Traditionalist Catholics abducted, jailed and beat a group of evangelical Christians with rods and stones in Oaxaca, Mexico [the week of November 2] on orders from the head of a municipality, according to human rights officials.

A mob sent by San Juan Ozolotepec President Pedro Cruz Gonzalez on Nov. 4 attacked the Christians for declining to participate in and help pay for Traditionalist Catholic festivals and for protesting their previous mistreatment. The mob attacked the Christian’s unfinished church structure with sledgehammers and pick-axes, and four of the Christians were jailed from Tuesday until Friday (Nov. 5 to Nov. 8), according to the National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR).

News service Agencia JM reported that Alfredo Alonso, along with his brothers Raymundo Alonso and Aquiles Alonso, managed to escape from the mob sent to kill the Christians. Afredo Alonso said Cruz Gonzalez had led townsfolk to hate those who are not Traditionalist Catholics, who practice a blend of Catholic and indigenous rites that evangelicals say involves drunkenness, revelry and idol worship.

Alonso family members were among those targeted for objecting to the town boss’s April 2011 order to halt construction of the independent Pentecostal church building, which had begun in 2010; Cruz Gonzales threatened to expel them and other Christians, forbade them from accessing government food aid programs and blocked them from the public market to buy staple items, according to Agencia JM.

“By the work of God we are still alive, because they beat us with all fury, even using iron rods and stones, and they threatened to burn us just for wanting to help our family members, who are victims of abuse of authority by the intolerant municipal president,” Alfredo Alonso told Agencia JM.

Alonso’s son, Leopoldo Alonso, the pastor of the attacked church, was jailed and beaten along with Manuel Martínez Silva, Miguel Silva Reyes y Placido Aragón before state officials helped free them. The undersecretary of Political Development of the Secretary General of Interior, José Silva, said the Christians were freed after state officials warned Cruz Gonzales of possible criminal charges against him, according to Milenio news portal.

The state Attorney General’s office examined the four Christians after their release and confirmed that they had been beaten in jail.

Traditionalist Catholics in remote areas have long invoked Mexico’s “Law of Uses and Customs” – designed to protect the rights of indigenous communities to practice native rites – to force their practices on people of minority faiths. Christians declining to participate in the Traditionalist Catholic festivals have been threatened, attacked and economically deprived in the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero, Hidalgo and Puebla.

http://morningstarnews.org/2013/11/head-of-town-in-mexico-sends-mob-to-beat-abduct-christians/