Two men in Hidalgo State were arbitrarily imprisoned and then expelled from their community, along with their families, after refusing to renounce their religious beliefs on 12 March.
Casto Hernández Hernández and his cousin Juan Placido Hernández, both Protestant Christians, were imprisoned for approximately 30 hours by village officials in Chichiltepec village, Tlanchinol Municipality.
Targeting protestants
According to Pastor Marcopolo Valdéz Guzmán, president of the Pastors’ Alliance for the Sierra and Huasteca, the region in which the religious freedom violations took place, the efforts to expel the men were led by local leaders, including the village delegate, Jesús Domínguez Hernández. A campaign targeting the Protestant minority began in April 2014, when the village authorities attempted to force them to sign a document prohibiting them from belonging to any non-Roman Catholic religion. The Protestants refused to do so, but the village leaders signed the document, which they claimed was binding on the community.
