“Local leaders in Rancho Nuevo … who all belong to the Roman Catholic religious majority in the village, participated in the attack after being informed of her presence,” CSW said in a press release.
Hernández Hernández was able to report the incident to police and return home, but was hospitalized after she began vomiting blood the evening of the assault. A diabetic, she developed complications that have worsened her prognosis, CSW reported.
“The doctors are not optimistic she’ll recover,” Stangl said. “We’re praying for her, for a miracle.”
No arrests have been made in the beating, despite the alleged perpetrators being identified by name.
“The life of a woman hangs in the balance and a community is living in fear because, despite ample evidence of serious violations of freedom of religion or belief in Rancho Nuevo for more than seven years, the Mexican authorities have failed to intervene,” Stangl said in the press release. “Instead, Hidalgo State government officials, under the previous governor, have for years publicly denied the existence of cases of religious intolerance in the state.
“We hold these authorities, alongside those directly involved in the attack, responsible for the events of 21 December.”
The indigenous Catholic leaders have demanded that Baltazar hand over deeds to 10 plots of land owned by members of the Baptist church and, when Baltazar refused, threatened to take the documents and land by force. Also, in the event of Hernández Hernández’s death, they have denied her the right to be buried in the village.
CSW documented such persecution in a 2021 report on the lives of religious minority indigenous women in Mexico, “Let Her Be Heard,” available here.
Mexico’s population of 130.2 million people is 78 percent Roman Catholic and about 10 percent Protestant or evangelical Christian, the U.S. State Department reported in its 2021 report. About 8 percent don’t practice any religion, with the remaining 4 percent composed of Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Muslims, the state department reported.
This article originally appeared here.
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