Demonstrations are planned for today 22 August 2024 in the main square of Mexico City and in the city of Oaxaca to protest serious violations of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in the community of San Isidro Arenal, San Juan Lalana Municipality, Oaxaca State, where members of a Protestant religious minority have been subjected to discrimination, violence, and arbitrary detention since last year, and are now facing imminent forced displacement from their homes due to their religious beliefs.   

In November 2023, community leaders in the Chinanteco speaking community moved to enforce a 1993 community accord mandating Roman Catholicism as the only religion permitted in San Isidro Arenal. Following this move, 13 families belonging to the Protestant Interdenominational Christian Church (ICIAR) began to experience threats and acts of violence encouraged by community leaders, despite the fact that they were fulfilling all of their community responsibilities, including participating in Roman Catholic activities even though they are not members of that religious group. One month later, in December 2023, three religious minority families were forcibly expelled from the community and took refuge in Playa Vicente Municipality, Veracruz State. 

The situation escalated earlier this month when on 6 August the remaining religious minority families were dispossessed of their lands and livestock. Over 300 men looted the families’ properties, wiping out their cacao and mango cultivations, and destroying their homes. Their church, which is located on the Cerro Cajón Ranch, was set on fire.  

On 16 August two pastors - Pastor Moisés Sarmiento Alavés and Pastor Esdrás Ojeda Jiménez - went to the community, accompanied by two other men - Pablo Gómez Sosa and Nabor Ojeda - with the intention of attending a legal proceeding announced by the Oaxaca State Prosecutor’s Office. Pastor Sarmiento Alavés was to provide interpretation services for members of the community who only speak Chinanteco, while the three other men planned to deliver humanitarian aid, in the form of food, to the affected families. However, the planned proceeding never took place and the four men were attacked by a mob. They were stripped, beaten, arbitrarily detained for over six hours, and forced to sign a document which they did not have the opportunity to read.  

According to Pastor Geraldo Hernández, the legal representative of the San Isidro Arenal religious minority group, a representative from the State’s Prosecutor’s office eventually arrived by truck to San Isidro Arenal, but did not take witness statements regarding the events of 6 August as he was supposed to do, and departed without any action on behalf of the four men. Members of the community blocked the entrances to San Isidro Arenal, preventing anyone else from entering. The four men were ultimately freed by the police later that same day  

The local authorities have not exclusively targeted members of the religious minority but anyone speaking up on their behalf. On 18 August, community member Lucía Antonio was issued an eight-day ultimatum to leave the community or face punitive action. Ms Antonio is not a member of the religious minority group, however she had expressed support for FoRB and her disagreement with the actions of the local authorities. The same day, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Oaxaca Pedro Vásquez Villalobos denounced the attacks on the religious minority during his Sunday homily.  

On 20 August, following a meeting with state government representatives, the religious minority families were informed that their livestock would be returned to them on the condition that they would be required to pay a daily fee of 1000 pesos (approximately $50 USD) for grazing rights, backdated to 6 August. The same day, at a press conference, Jesús Romero López, Secretary of Government of Oaxaca State, downplayed the issue, claiming that the case was already being addressed and denying any possibility that the situation could escalate to violence and forced displacement, stating categorically that this would not happen, however, the following day, on 21 August, as most of the religious minority families were attending a meeting with Oaxaca State government officials, San Isidro Arenal community members invaded the Cerro Cajón Ranch and looted and destroyed the homes of the religious minority. Three women, Maximina Contreras Antonio, an 83-year-old paraplegic, and mother and daughter Esmeralda Antonio and Cristina Hernández, were abducted and had their mobile phone confiscated before being forced onto a truck and later abandoned on a roadside hours away from their homes.  

Porfirio Flores, lawyer and representative of the Fellowship of Pastors, told CSW that ‘greater attention must be paid to the issue of religious freedom in Oaxaca. A fundamental change is needed regarding the problems arising from civil and religious charges within internal normative systems, while respecting the secular state.’ 

CSW’s Head of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said: ‘We stand with those who are raising their voices today across Mexico in support of freedom of religion or belief for all. It is imperative that the governments of the San Juan Lalana Municipality and Oaxaca State, and at the federal level, take urgent action to uphold the Mexican Constitution and ensure that freedom of religion or belief is a right enjoyed by all, regardless of where they live or their ethno-linguistic identity. The volatile situation in San Isidro Arenal is yet another example of how the government’s failure to intervene at the early stages of cases of religious intolerance and its neglect of education around freedom of religion or belief has led local authorities to believe that they can enforce religious adherence and practice and commit criminal acts against those who believe differently with impunity. Concrete steps must be taken now to protect the members of the religious minority in San Isidro Arenal, and those who are responsible for crimes committed against them must be held to account for their actions.’ 

Notes to Editors:

1. San Isidro Arenal is an indigenous Chinanteco-speaking community governed under Uses and Customs, which protects the right of indigenous communities to maintain their cultural and traditional methods of local governance with the caveat that it must be applied in line with human rights guarantees in the Mexican constitution and in the international conventions to which Mexico is party. The Mexican constitution guarantees FoRB and other human rights to all citizens. However, in practice FoRB violations are common among indigenous communities governed under Uses and Customs and the Mexican government at the federal, state, and municipal levels does little to ensure that these protections are upheld. As a result, in many communities a religious majority attempts to enforce religious uniformity with consequences ranging in severity for members of minorities who wish to practice a religion or belief of their choosing.    

2. Last month Tito Mariano Méndez and Esther Abigail Pérez Ramírez, a married couple, were arbitrarily detained from 20-23 July in Montenegro in the San Juan Bautista Valle Nacional Municipality, also in Oaxaca State, after community leaders learned that they had submitted a complaint to the Oaxaca State Ombudsman’s Office regarding FoRB violations they were experiencing as Protestant Christians in a Roman Catholic majority community. 

3. On 26 April 2024, over 150 Baptist Protestants were forcibly displaced from the villages of Coamila and Rancho Nuevo in in the municipality of Huejutla de Reyes in Hidalgo State after village leaders, all Roman Catholics, cut off their electricity, vandalised their church, and blocked access to some of their homes. Human rights violations linked to FoRB have been ongoing and severe in the neighbouring villages since 2015, however the municipal government continues to deny that the incidents are linked to FoRB, and no action has been taken to ensure that those responsible for the displacement are held to account and the rights of the religious minority group are protected.