A Protestant pastor and his family have been exiled from a village in Mexico after he refused to pray to a saint during a Catholic ceremony.
Last November Pastor Mariano Velásquez Martínez was appointed to the position of “mayordomo” in the local community of Santiago Malacatepec in Oaxaca State. The position is one of stewardship and involves leading a traditional Roman Catholic festival.
Pastor Velásquez Martínez said that he accepted the position on the understanding that his only role in the festival would be to provide the flowers and candles.
However, when the day of the festival came on 15 January, a fellow mayordomo told Pastor Velásquez Martínez not only to light the candles, but to kneel and pray to an image of Saint James.
Despite Pastor Velásquez Martínez saying that it had been agreed that he would not be required to take such action, the other mayordomo complained to the leadership of the village.
Pastor Velásquez Martínez was reportedly then bound with a rope and told he was being expelled from the village, all in front of a crowd of about 180 men.
The pastor says he was forced into signing a document that expelled him from the community, adding that he was not given a copy. He, his wife and three-month-old baby are now living with relatives in Oaxaca City.
Concerningly, this is not the first time an incident such as this has occurred in the region. Pastor Velásquez Martínez has led the small Iglesia Camino Nuevo y Vivo (New and Living Way Church) since 2023, when the previous pastor was also forcibly displaced.
Porfirio Flores Zúñiga, a lawyer and representative of the Fellowship of Pastors, has demanded that the Attorney General's Office and the Secretary of Government of Oaxaca State use the Forced Displacement Law against those who forced Pastor Velásquez Martínez and his family out.
Under the law, those guilty of forcibly displacing people in Oaxaca state can be punished by up to 18 years in prison.
Anna Lee Stangl, director of advocacy at Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said, ”The arbitrary detention of Pastor Mariano Velásquez Martínez and the subsequent forced displacement of him and his family is unconscionable.
"His case demonstrates how both state and federal governments are failing to meet not only their international human rights obligations, but, even more fundamentally, their commitments to uphold basic rights in Mexico's own constitution and laws.
“This case is unfortunately not unique, and it is past time that the Mexican government, at every level, implements policies to uphold freedom of religion or belief for all, including in communities governed under Uses and Customs.
"We call on the government of Oaxaca to take swift action to hold those responsible for the forced displacement of this family to account under the law, and to take steps to make it clear that freedom of religion or belief must be upheld for all.”
