Protestant pastor expelled for refusing Catholic ritual

Officials in a village in southern Mexico’s Oaxaca state detained for five days and then expelled a Protestant pastor for refusing to participate in Catholic church rituals, according to a U.K-based advocacy group.

In Santiago Malacatepec, San Juan Mazatlán Municipality in eastern Oaxaca, local Catholics on Jan. 15 ordered Pastor Mariano Velásquez Martínez to light candles, kneel and pray to an image of St. James as part of the village’s Roman Catholic festival, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported. 

Pastor Velásquez Martínez had accepted a leadership position in the community on the understanding that he would be required only to provide candles and flowers for the Catholic festival, according to CSW. When he refused to kneel and pray to the image, a festival leader complained to village leaders.

“Ignoring the terms of the original agreement, the local authorities detained Pastor Velásquez Martínez for five days,” CSW stated. “He was then bound with a rope and taken before an assembly of about 180 men, where an announcement was made by the village authorities that he was to be expelled.”

Officials forced Pastor Velásquez Martínez to sign a document that forcibly displaced him from the community, the group reported.

“He was not provided with a copy and fears it will be used to fabricate the story that he left the community voluntarily,” CSW stated. “The pastor, his wife and 3-month-old baby are now residing temporarily with relatives in Oaxaca City.”

Pastor Velásquez Martínez has led the 25-member Iglesia Camino Nuevo y Vivo in Santiago Malacatepec since the forced displacement of its previous pastor in 2023, CSW reported.

The case follows the passage of legislation in the Oaxaca State Congress in September against forced displacement that calls for prison sentences of 10 to 18 years for those found guilty, along with fines. Oaxaca is the fifth state to pass such a law, along with Chiapas, Guerrero, Sinaloa and Zacatecas.

“Local officials told CSW that they estimate that around half of cases of forced displacement in Oaxaca state can be linked to religious intolerance,” the group stated. 

Porfirio Flores Zúñiga, an attorney and representative of the Fellowship of Pastors, called on the Oaxaca Attorney General’s Office and the Secretary of Government of Oaxaca to apply the newly approved Forced Displacement Law in this case.

Flores Zúñiga filed a criminal complaint with the Attorney General of Oaxaca against Santiago Malacatepec officials Melquiades Castro and Andrés Retes, accusing them of arbitrary actions and abuse of authority, according to newspaper El Universal Oaxaca. The attorney also reportedly filed a complaint with the Defense of Human Rights of the People of Oaxaca (Defensoría de los Derechos Humanos del Pueblo de Oaxaca, DDHPO) seeking that it take action.

Authorities had taken no action as of Jan. 19, Flores Zúñiga said, leading him to comment to the newspaper that the state response is insufficient to handle cases of religious intolerance.

CSW’s Director of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said in a press statement that the arbitrary detention of Pastor Velásquez Martínez and the subsequent forced displacement of him and his family was 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,” Stangl said. “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.”

Mexico’s constitution provides for indigenous peoples to follow their culture, traditions and methods of local governance under the “Uses and Customs” provision, though such customs often conflict with human rights guarantees in the constitution and in international conventions that Mexico has signed.

“The Mexican constitution guarantees FoRB [Freedom of Religion and Belief] and other human rights to all citizens,” CSW noted. “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 harmful results to minorities who wish to practice a different religion or belief, the group stated.

“ Oaxaca state has one of the highest incidences of violations of freedom of religion or belief in the country,” CSW added. 

Stangl called 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.”

Mexico ranked No. 30 on Open Doors’ 2026 World Warch List (WWL) of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Criminal groups operate throughout Mexico, with church leaders and other Christians promoting peace in danger from gangs that feel threatened by their influence. Those who leave indigenous faiths to follow Jesus can be seen as dishonoring their ancestors, and Christians in indigenous regions are also especially vulnerable to hostility, according to the WWL report.

This article was originally published by Christian Daily International.