Around 50 members of the Wixarika (Huichol) population in northern Jalisco have been “expelled” from their community for practicing a religion that is contrary to their native beliefs.
According to a detailed report in Guadalajara Spanish-language daily Milenio, as well as information supplied by the State Commission for Human Rights (CEDH), the banished members of the tribe were all Jehovah Witnesses in Tuxpan de Bolaños – an entirely indigenous community in the municipality of Bolaños that is home to around 1,300 Huicholes.
According to the article, CEDH has emitted a recommendation requesting Bolaños Mayor Juan Carlos Rodríguez Mayorga and the Jalisco state government take the necessary steps to ensure the physical and emotional well-being of the affected Wixarika.
The CEDH instructed authorities to “guarantee medical attention, housing and education to the persons that have been expelled,” it said.
According to the Voz de Norte, a regional newspaper, the decision to expel the religious defectors was taken at communal meetings held on December 2 and 3.
The newspaper said religious affiliation was not the major motive for the expulsion, but that the members in question refused to participate in civic-religious festivities and carry out community obligations.
This is not the first time conflicts have arisen within the Huichol community over the encroachment of different religions.
In 1995, the pro-Catholic National Action Party (PAN) government of Jalisco intervened on behalf of a Franciscan nun who was kicked out of the community of Santa Catarina. More recently, a succession of disputes have arisen in Jalisco indigenous communities after members have chosen to profess protestant faiths such as Adventists and Baptists, as well as the Jehovah Witnesses.
Despite various recommendations from the human rights agency, local authorities have been unable to prevent abuses and threats against the new believers, forcing many to migrate to more tolerant communities in neighboring Nayarit.