Leobard "Chito" Aguilar was once a terrorist, a feared rebel leader, and a notorious drug trafficker.
But Aguilar found God in his darkest moments and now he has become a courageous Christian pastor, defending his flock in Mexico.
Speaking to Open Doors USA, Aguilar said he became a communist rebel in 1968 following the infamous Tlatelolco massacre where hundreds of students and civilians were killed by military and police.
By joining the rebels, he said he became part of a terrorist organization and a drug trafficker.
Aguilar said for years he lived in the world of organized crime until he was caught in possession of drugs and was locked up in prison.
Fortunately, he had a devout Catholic wife named Lidia who prayed unceasingly for his release. God answered her prayers, and Aguilar was released from prison.
Aguilar said he did not believe in God even up to that point, and that all he wanted then was to recover the money and his other possessions that had been taken away from him.
But his wife never gave up on him as she kept on praying for him to find God. Finally, once again, her prayers were answered: Aguilar surrendered his life to Jesus.
Aguilar is now the pastor of Centro Familiar Aposento Alto, a Protestant church in Ciudad Juarez, near the border between Mexico and the United States.
Aguilar said his church, like many other churches in Mexico, is being subjected to extortion and coercion by the organized crime syndicate that he once belonged to.
However, because he knows first-hand how the criminal gangs operate, he said he has never been intimidated by them and never had to pay extortion money to them.
Other churches in the country have surrendered to the drug cartels, he said.
"You could see pastors leaving their congregations and fleeing to the United States because things had gotten very dangerous for them in Mexico. It was a very critical time for the church. Christian leaders lived in fear. The drug cartels had already killed a pastor and kidnapped several others," he told Open Doors USA.
The Christian persecution watchdog ranked Mexico as the 41st worst country in the world for Christians to be living in on its 2017 World Watch list. It says the persecution level affecting the 120 million Christians in Mexico is "high" due to "organized corruption."
Another source of persecution is the influence of indigenous pagan tribes. Last week, some 25 evangelical Christians refused to leave a troubled area in Mexico's western Jalisco state despite facing persecution in an area where members of a tribe hold pagan rituals, Christian leaders told BosNews Life.
Members of the tribe who turned to Jesus have faced alienation, eviction from their communities, and separation from their families for refusing to take part in the ancient tribal rituals, sources said.
