ARTICLES

Chains, Doors, and Windows Were Broken

FEDERAL POLICE ADMIT 'ERRORS' LED TO RAID ON TIJUANA MARISTS

A January 31 police raid on a house occupied by a religious order in Tijuana has heightened tensions between the Catholic Church and the Mexican government. Heavily-armed agents of the Mexican Federal Police conducted a search without a warrant of the home of the Marist Brothers in the early morning hours.

"We were the target of a brutal violation of our basic rights," said Brother Manuel Franco Jáuregui, principal of Instituto Mexico, a Catholic school operated by the Marists since 1965.

The raid re-ignited passions in an uneasy truce between church and state in Mexico that dates back to the Mexican Revolution. Restrictions placed on the Church by the government more than 60 years ago have only recently been relaxed, but relations have remain strained. The Mexican government and the Church have recently battled over public education, social justice, and methods used by the government to suppress the civil uprising in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

Father Jorge Echegoyen, pastor at Sagrado Corazón parish in downtown Tijuana and financial director of the diocesan seminary, said the federal government is doing everything it can to discredit the Catholic Church. "The Church has criticized the government on social and political issues," he said in a telephone interview. "And I believe that the government is doing everything to discredit Her. They are trying to create division within the Church, and giving Her a bad reputation, even among Catholics. The government is trying to silence the Church." The warrantless search of the Marist house, he said, was just another example of government attempts to intimidate the Church.

Despite strong protests from Catholic officials in Tijuana, the government has defended the early morning raid. "The investigation started with two telephone calls by neighbors," said Alfonso Navarrete, head of penal procedures for the federal police, an arm of the Mexican attorney general's office. "The telephone callers said that armed men driving luxurious cars frequently entered the Marist House."

The government has claimed that the religious order was suspected of hiding someone close to the Arellano Félix brothers, leaders of an infamous Baja California drug cartel. The federal police denied that the government knew the house belonged to a religious order. "We did everything according to the law," said Navarrete, although he admitted there may have been some "errors" in the investigation leading up to the search because federal officers should have completed a more detailed check of the informants before acting.

"These are all lies," said Brother Manuel Franco. "We demand to know who the alleged informants are. We have been in Tijuana for 33 years. Everybody knows us. I do not believe their story."

One of the brothers required hospitalization for a heart condition that worsened because of the violent way the federal officers entered the house. Chains, doors, and windows were broken.

Even though the police apologized publicly for the "inconvenience" suffered by the Marists, many in Tijuana expressed outrage over the incident, since it was not the first time the federal police have used brute force to break into homes and accuse families of drug trafficking.

The diocese of Tijuana issued a letter signed by the vicar general, Monsignor Sergio de la Cerda, expressing "solidarity with the Marist religious community" and protesting the "arbitrary act of the federales." Tijuana Bishop Rafael Romo was in Rome at the time of the incident.

In a radio interview, Brother Franco said officials of the federal police are not telling the truth, and that he suspects a conspiracy against the Marist order. In a private meeting with Baja California governor Hector Terán, the Marist brothers expressed indignation at the accusation they are in any way involved with drug lords.

Brother Franco told reporters at a news conference that the Marists are being harassed and persecuted by some federal agencies for their outspoken condemnation of the massacre of 47 indigenous people in the Mexican state of Chiapas on December 22 of last year.

The Marists in Tijuana have received letters from around the world expressing sympathy, support and outrage at the government's actions and the ensuing negative publicity for the Marists and the Church.

On Wednesday, February 18, an estimated 1500 people marched to the offices of the federal police to protest the raid on the Marist house. Bishop Romo, who had returned from Rome in time for the march, spoke briefly, calling for peaceful relations with the government.