Christian Persecution – Americas

A Colombian pastor and his family have fled for their lives after ultra-rightist forces killed three members of the pastor’s church, reports a church leader in Medellin.

Amid Colombia’s rising tide of violence between rebels, paramilitaries and the nation’s army, its people need help and encouragement more than ever. But the danger has forced many international ministries working in the country to re-think plans or even consider pulling out.

The violent October protests that rocked Bolivia, causing 12 deaths, scores of injuries and millions of dollars in damages, embodied one more local clash in the international drug war. The conflict has pitted the government, which is implementing a plan to eradicate the coca plant, the raw material from which cocaine is produced, against peasant farmers from the tropical Chapare region, where 90 percent of the country’s illicit coca crop is grown.

Armed men overpowered a night guard at the Peace and Hope Association’s Lima, Peru, office and left with four computers, each containing sensitive data on cases defended by the evangelical legal aid and human rights organization.

In late June, the government of Peru initiated a special task force, the National Human Rights Council, which is charged with freeing persons wrongfully imprisoned as terrorists.

An Australian Protestant missionary was kidnapped on Sunday by a gang of armed men on Colombia’s north coast, according to news reports. Edward Walter Smith, 51, was abducted from a church in the village of Canito along with three local men. The three men were released unharmed later on Sunday.

Resolution as to the fate of three American missionaries kidnapped in Panama in 1993 by Colombian guerrillas continues to evade family and friends.

An evangelical Peruvian village leader was executed March 20 after Marxist guerrillas declared him guilty of taking part in police and military activities.

Christians in America will face great persecution soon and they must be aggressors in the midst of it, Josef Tson said March 2 at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.