Voices from the Americas: A Mennonite Pastor in Ciudad Juarez

“How can we be a church of peace and hope in a context of overwhelming violence?” asks Pastor Carlos Martinez, in an interview in April, 2011. Martinez is the pastor of the Iglesia Evangelica Misionera Nuevo Pacto, the only Mennonite church in Ciudad Juarez, México,  The congregation’s historic peace theology has added significance for them as they live in what has become “the most dangerous city” in the Americas: Ciudad Juarez.

This city along the México-Texas border, is an epicenter in the US-Mexican “war on drugs.” Over 8000 people have been killed here since 2008, as the armed conflict between drug cartels and the Mexican government has escalated.

Layers of Structural and Physical Violence

While the “war on drugs” is relatively new, Ciudad Juarez has embodied various forms of structural and physical violence throughout it’s history. For decades it was a gateway for poor migrant labourers going to work in the USA. In 1964 the US government terminated the Bracero program that legally enabled Mexicans to travel to the USA for seasonal farm labour.

In response, the municipal government invited the establishment of maquiladoras, export-oriented assembly plants. The city was one of the first to adopt this new form of economic development in the 1960s.  Maquiladoras enabled American industries to utilize cheap Mexican labour (about $2-5 per day) without the Mexicans actually having to enter the USA. Today, the maquilas continue to be the core of the city’s economy, with over 300 factories employing 200,000 people, about one-fifth of the city’s population.

Ciudad Juarez is also a focal point for the approximately half-a-million undocumented migrants attempting to enter the USA each year. Human trafficking, extortion, and risky border-crossings are widespread in the region.

“Feminicido,” the torture and murder of women, usually young factory workers, is another form of violence associated with this city. Over the past 15 years, about 1000 women have been killed; a phenomenon that has thrived, until recently, because of the indifference of authorities.

Layering a “war on drugs” on top of the pre-existing forms of structural violence, has created a situation in which physical violence now stains the lives of the citizens of this city on a daily basis.

Violence and Fear: The “New Normal”  

“As human individuals we feel afraid, but we have become accustomed to living in this environment; it has become the “new normal” for us,” according to Martinez.

Assaults, robberies, express kidnappings, and car-jacking are common occurrences. Almost every member of the Mennonite church as experienced at least one of these in the past year, including Martinez who was victim of an “express-kidnapping,” in which he was held for several hours at gunpoint until he got the money the kidnappers demanded.

In the past several years, over 150 churches in the city have closed because of threats and extortion.

“There is a chain of violence. There are the drug cartel bosses, but it’s not them; they say this type of small-scale crime is below them – rather it is ordinary people taking advantage of the situation of insecurity and lawlessness – of living in a ‘war zone’,” according to Martinez,  “Many are young men aged 14-17 years old, who feel they have no future, no alternatives.”

Prayer and Action: A Faith-base Response

What is the church’s calling in this complex web of violence? “Our role is to have an impact,” says Martinez. “We need to do more than pray; we need to act. Our best hope is  to overcome our separateness as churches and as individuals, and to work in unity.”

This congregation of 80 members in a working-class neighbourhood near the city centre was started 30 years ago by Jacob and Berta Kroeker, missionaries from Manitoba. Using a relational approach, the congregation works to strengthen their community through programs for children, women and families that address health, education, and peace issues.

MCC México supports educational opportunities for Mennonite church leaders. In Ciudad Juarez, MCC’s partner, SERAPAZ, a Mexican peace and conflict transformation organization, holds fear management and peace-building workshops.

When asked what message he would like to give to Christians in Canada and the USA, Pastor Martinez said: “We must each ask ourselves – What am I called to do in this situation? God has a purpose for every nation – what role and challenge does God have for me?”