SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico – On Monday April 23, small town political bosses near this city in Chiapas state were set to meet with representatives of 65 Christians they have threatened to expel in a showdown that could influence religious rights throughout the region.

The town rulers decided to drive 13 Christian families from their homes last December for refusing to help pay for “traditionalist Catholic” festivals in Los Pozos, 29 kilometers (18 miles) from San Cristobal. State and federal officials intervened, and on February 28 the town bosses verbally agreed to a pact pledging they wouldn’t expel the evangelicals, whose water lines and electricity they have cut since January.

But Christian leaders told Compass the rulers have signaled that either they will not sign the accord, or will exact fines before signing, or will sign it with plans to renege on it.

Leaders of both the evangelicals and the traditionalist Catholics, who practice a blend of Roman Catholicism and Tzotzil Maya customs, view the showdown as their Waterloo. For evangelicals, the outcome of the political maneuvering is expected to influence whether other Protestants in the region continue to be bullied into paying for alcohol-drenched Catholic festivals or gain a toe-hold on religious rights.

“This will be an historic precedent, because in all the communities this news is going to run that the local officials signed the accord,” said Esdras Alonso Gutierrez, an attorney representing the 65 evangelicals that make up almost the entire Alas de Aguila (Eagle’s Wings) church in Los Pozos. “Other caciques [local autocratic rulers] in other communities are saying, ‘If we lose this one in Los Pozos, we’re not going to be able to impose on them in other communities.’”

Alas de Aguila Pastor Reynaldo Gomez Ton told Compass that the caciques originally threatened the church members with expulsion at a town council meeting last December 23. The town bosses gave the evangelicals two weeks to pay their share of the costs for the December 12 Virgin of Guadalupe festival or face expulsion, he said.

The evangelicals vow not to budge from their homes. They hope, Alonso told Compass, that the state and federal government intervention that led to the verbal agreement between the caciques and the Christians in February will carry over to government action regardless of whether the Los Pozos officials sign the accord: protection of the evangelicals if the political bosses fail to sign, enforcement of the accord if they do.

“If on the 23^rd they don’t sign the accord, or if they condition it by making the evangelicals pay a fine, we’re simply not going to accept it, and we’re going to demand that the government do its job of protecting them and their rights,” Alonso said. “If something happens on the 23^rd, it’s the responsibility of the government – the brothers are not going to leave, and whatever aggression the caciques mete out, the government is responsible.”

The agreement calls for local authorities to restore the evangelicals’ water lines, electrical service and firewood rights and resume distributing federal food aid and fertilizers they have diverted from the Christians. The Tzotzil Christians told Compass they have been walking more than a kilometer to wash clothes in muddy well water or puddles since the caciques cut their services on January 30.

The church members are skeptical of the caciques’ decision to wait two months to sign an agreement reached verbally on February 28. At that time, the Los Pozos officials told them that they could only draw up the documents for signing at their next regular meeting on April 23. 

“Up till now, because they’ve cut this children’s food aid program from us, we’ve been suffering trying to buy food as at times the money comes up short,” said Carmela Santis Lopez, 38, who has four children ages 18 months, 4, 6 and 8. “When we went to get the food assistance from the authorities, they threatened us saying, ‘Your children are not at fault, you are at fault for accepting Christ and not wanting to contribute to the Catholic festivals, so you’re not going to get your grocery food anymore.’”