Mexican Town Expels 70 Protestants
SAN CRISTOBAL
DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (AP) -- One of Mexico's most
intractable religious dispute has erupted anew with the expulsion of about
70
Protestants from the Indian community of Chamula.
The expulsions, announced
late Thursday, are the latest incidents in a 25-year
conflict that has seen thousands of people driven from Chamula because
they
don't share the mix of Catholic and Maya traditions of most Indians in
the region.
Authorities have sometimes
brought a pause in expulsions, but they have failed to
solve a conflict that pits an Indian group defending its culture against
other groups
demanding the right to freedom of religion.
``We want to return to our
houses because we have nothing,'' said Mateo
Gonzalez Santis, one of the Protestants expelled from his home in the
village of
Icalumtic. ``Our great crime is that with the word of God we are seeking
peace.''
Those expelled this week are evangelical Protestants -- a rapidly growing group in Chiapas. And village leaders even place strict limits on what type of Catholic priests visit.
Chamula, just north of San
Cristobal in southern Chiapas state, is populated by
Indians who have a deep attachment to a Tzotzil Maya tradition.
Its religion blends Catholicism
with Mayan beliefs and practices, which include the sipping of a
potent alcohol called posh during prayers in the township's only
permitted church.
Many Protestants and some foreign Catholics object to mandatory village taxes and duties to support religious festivals involving mass drunkenness.
Critics also complain that
town leaders' insistence on unity extends to demands
that all support the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Past expulsions have sometimes involved beatings, house-burnings and rapes.
Refugees from the village
have often clashed with Chamula loyalists, sometimes
with riotous battles on the edge of San Cristobal. In 1994, villagers
killed three
Evangelicals who tried to return home.