{"id":29245,"date":"2020-08-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/csw-calls-for-renewed-investigations-on-first-anniversary-of-pastor-and-co-4751\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T18:58:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:58:47","slug":"csw-calls-for-renewed-investigations-on-first-anniversary-of-pastor-and-co-4751","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/press\/csw-calls-for-renewed-investigations-on-first-anniversary-of-pastor-and-co-4751\/","title":{"rendered":"CSW calls for renewed investigations on first anniversary of pastor and co-worker’s abduction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CSW calls on the Mexican government to renew investigations into the abduction of Protestant Pastor Aar\u00f3n M\u00e9ndez Ruiz and his co-worker Alfredo Castillo de Luna, on the first anniversary of their forcible disappearance from the migrant shelter where they worked in Nuevo Laredo, on the US-Mexico border.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastor M\u00e9ndez Ruiz and Mr Castillo de Luna were kidnapped from the AMAR migrant shelter<\/a> where they worked on 3 August 2019, after the pastor blocked an attempt by an organised criminal group to kidnap Cuban asylum seekers from the shelter. The two men have not been seen or heard from since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 2019 the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) issued a call to the Mexican government<\/a> to detail what measures it has taken \u201cto determine the whereabouts or destination\u201d of the two men, to protect the families of the victims and report the progress of the investigations of the facts. Despite this, there has been no progress in the investigation and no perpetrators have been held to account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The expansion of violent criminal groups in Mexico and a pervading climate of impunity has led to an increase in violence against religious leaders<\/a> in recent years. Many criminal groups view church leaders, both Catholic and Protestant, and their influence, as a threat to their power. Religious leaders continue to be threatened, kidnapped and killed, and a lack of proper investigation means perpetrators are not brought to justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Religious leaders involved in church ministries that support drug and alcohol addicts, migrants, victims of human rights violations including trafficking, and those looking to leave or avoid involvement in criminal groups are also at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW\u2019s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said: \u201cIt has now been a year since Pastor M\u00e9ndez Ruiz and Mr Castillo de Luna were kidnapped by an organised criminal group because of their work assisting and protecting vulnerable migrants. The Mexican government must do more to ensure that questions over the two men\u2019s whereabouts are answered by renewing investigations into this case and ensure that the issues of impunity in cases such as this and lack of protection for religious leaders are addressed. We also call on the international community to raise this case and other violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief with Mexico at every opportunity.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CSW calls on the Mexican government to renew investigations into the abduction of Protestant Pastor Aarn Mndez Ruiz and his co-worker Alfredo Castillo de Luna<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":43382,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[137,141],"class_list":["post-29245","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-latin-america","regions-mexico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39829,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29245\/revisions\/39829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29245"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=29245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}