Argentine lawyer appeals to U.S. for help with persecution case

The two women selling food on a street corner in the crime-ridden city of Río Tercero, Argentina, had no time to run when a van pulled up in front of them late last month and a man and a woman jumped out. The pair beat the vendors and trampled on their food, fleeing when witnesses approached. Witnesses called the police but the officers who responded mocked the women and left. Meanwhile, the attackers reported the incident to the police before the true victims, members of Pueblo Grande Baptist Church, could accuse them of assault.

Such violence against members of Pueblo Grande has become common in the last four years. The case has sparked a debate about religious liberty in Argentina, but the violence against Pueblo Grande is rooted in money.

The church, led by pastor Marcelo Nieva, operates a home for abused women and children and has a ministry to former prostitutes and sex trafficking victims. It’s been so successful rescuing women from their narco-trafficking abusers that it’s caught the attention of the town’s drug cartels, which have attempted to shut down the ministry with violent attacks and threats. When that didn’t work, the cartels appealed to the law.

In 2011, lawmakers in the province of Córdoba passed a provision that prohibits “psychological manipulation” through evangelizing. Two years later, Nieva was prosecuted under this “anti-cult” law, drawing national and international attention and sparking cries of religious persecution.

In December, Argentine lawyer Alejandro Zeverin testified before the Baptist World Alliance, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the U.S. State Department regarding the case of recurring violence against Pueblo Grande. He petitioned for U.S. officials to help local and federal Argentine governments and Protestant leaders in defending religious freedom.

In Córdoba, the government is part of the problem. Drug and human trafficking cartels have generated a vortex that pulls in local authorities, Zeverin said. Police overlook the abuse of church members, and judicial authorities don’t act on reports of violence. Zeverin said victims are caught “between two fires”—institutional force of police and justice.

Drug dealers, including the famous Chapo Guzman, who was arrested in February 2014, have made Río Tercero their center of operations. Córdoba was rocked by the 2010-2013 “narco-scandal,” which uncovered a network of drug dealers and collaborating policemen and forced the government to recognize and confront the problem.

Within the last year, Córdoba’s federal prosecutor, Enrique Senestrari, indicted corrupt police involved in the scandal. He recently told Nieva he wants to coordinate with Attorney-General Gils Carbó about the Río Tercero case and provide resources to take immediate action. “Del dicho al hecho hay mucho trecho,” Zeverin said, which means much can happen between a promise and its fulfillment. But he’s cautiously optimistic.

“I think we’re on the right track because there’s discussion,” he said. “People can’t keep looking the other way anymore.”

Zeverin has worked to bring the Pueblo Grande case to the federal courts on grounds of religious liberty violations. So far, the provincial justice system has not taken action, even though conspirators have been identified. During a Nov. 21 hearing, a federal judge acknowledged the threat to religious liberty in Córdoba but minimized the cases of violence. Meanwhile, the “anti-cult” law remains in place. Zeverin fears Río Tercero could be the beginning of religious persecution in Argentina.

The law is highly subjective and prone to abuse, Nieva told me. It also could disproportionately affect Protestant congregations because they are more prone to evangelize than Argentina’s Catholic churches. Argentina’s Protestant population has grown exponentially, now numbering 7.5 million in a population of 40 million.

“Anyone being taught the Bible can be ‘manipulated,’ and every person who changes his behavior, even partially, can be a ‘victim’ of a sect,” Nieva warned. “And all groups that have great love for a person, idea, or thing can be a sect. And every person who feels offended because someone … has changed their behavior can denounce them.”

Violence against Pueblo Grande stems from local crime networks, but resistance to the global Christian church has deeper roots, Nieva said, recalling the Apostle Paul warned the church would face persecution for their works: “The gospel—the message of the church—is a threat, a threat to those who traffic death.”