Weekly Report - 28 October 2003

The body of Mariano Dí­az Méndez, an indigenous Pentecostal pastor, was found inside his car in a ditch on the road from San Cristóbal de las Casas to San Juan Chamula. He had been shot dead, and it was instantly noted that San Juan Chamula was a predominantly Catholic town with a history of violence towards Protestants generally, that has claimed several lives over the past few decades.

Forensic examination of the body was prevented by local townspeople, who by tradition oppose any interference with corpses, including autopsies. They took the pastor's body from the police by force.

This has left unanswered a question raised by sources close to the state investigators, as a result of the discovery, close to the body of Dí­az Méndez, of two cartridge casings from an assault rifle. This is not a weapon customarily associated with religious feuds, but is the favourite for `executions' by organised crime in the area, as seen in the recent spate of killing in the border area of Chiapas — so the suggestion has been made that this may not have been a religiously motivated crime at all.

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