Fifty Seventh-day Adventist Church members have been attacked and expelled from the town of Justo Sierra in Chiapas, Mexico. Some were seriously injured, reports Samuel Castellanos, president of the Adventist Church in central Chiapas. The church members were driven from the town because they refused to work on Saturday, or Sabbath, in order to prepare the town for local religious festivities, explains Castellanos, and because Adventists would not help buy alcohol to be served at the festivities.  Also expelled from Justo Sierra were another 16 families who were members of the local Pentecostal church.

For more than a decade, there have been strained relations between Protestants and the predominantly indigenous Roman Catholic majority in Chiapas. Compass News Service reports that on February 23 an Adventist church service in Justo Sierra was disrupted by other villagers who beat worshipers with sticks and fists.

Castellanos says that church leaders in central Chiapas are talking with government officials to ensure that the human rights of the expelled families are respected. Negotiations for the safe return of Adventists to their homes are proceeding well, he says.

Until their return, those expelled from Justo Sierra are staying in an auditorium in nearby Las Margaritas. The Adventist Church in central Chiapas is providing food and basic necessities.   

“Our brothers and sisters are in good courage and they are trusting in God,” says Castellanos.  They are ready to die rather than compromise their faith, he adds.

The incident in Justo Sierra is the latest in a series of actions taken against Protestants in Chiapas. In March 2000, 12 Adventist families were among 72 Protestant families expelled from the village of Plan de Ayala because of disagreements over land rights and participation in community religious events.