A Cuban appeals court has surprised the homeschooling world by reversing a one-year prison sentence imposed on pastor Ramon Rigal for taking his children out of government schools and homeschooling them.
International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on July 7, Pastor Ramon Rigal, leader of Iglesia de Dios en Cristo, was sentenced to one year of heavy labor and house arrest for choosing to homeschool his children. Rigal has openly stated that his decision to homeschool was largely attributed to his Christian faith.
The first half of 2016 has seen church demolitions in Cuba gather pace as the government crackdown on freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) on the island continues. The authorities have also begun to confiscate 1,400 Assemblies of God (AOG) churches that were earmarked for seizure in 2015, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
Last month two churches in Chile were set ablaze by supporters of the Mapuche -- a Chilean movement that seeks to rid the region of religions contrary to their own indigenous beliefs.
Twenty-seven evangelical Protestant families in Chiapas state, Mexico, will finally have their access to water and electricity returned after local authorities had agreed two years ago to respect their minority religious freedoms in the village of Union Juarez, Trinitaria Municipality.
International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that in the early morning hours of February 15, the day Pope Francis arrived in the state of Chiapas, a minority Christian church located in Zincacantan, in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, was set ablaze, leaving hundreds without a place of worship. Although too early to definitively report on the identity of the perpetrators, the state government has been notified of the crime.
Ten Baptist families were unceremoniously expelled from the community of Tuxpan de Bolanos in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, last week for refusing to recant their faith.
Earlier this month, police in Cuba had arrested two pastors while government officials supervised the demolition of their churches.
Thirty Evangelical Protestants from the village of Leyva Velazquez in Chiapas, Mexico, were forced to flee what remained of their homes last week, according to International Christian Concern.
Seven Evangelical Christians in Chiapas, Mexico, were imprisoned on Dec. 15 after refusing to convert to Catholicism.
Local Mexican leaders recently raided the farmland in the village of Mariano Matamoros, Chiapas State, as part of an ongoing operation to expel a small Christian community from the Catholic-majority country.
Federal prosecutors in Argentina are currently pursuing criminal charges against the perpetrators of religious persecution who had targeted an evangelical church in Rio Tercero, Cordoba.
Police are investigating bombs that were placed next to three churches in New Mexico.
Two converts to Protestantism who had been imprisoned at the municipal capital of San Juan Chamula in Chiapas State since July 7 have now been released.
United States officials have questioned Mexico's government regarding reports of widespread discrimination and displacement of Protestant Christian communities in Chiapas and other Mexican states.
Earlier this year, Christians in Hidalgo State, Mexico, were allegedly threatened by a local government representative.