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An Update on the Drought-related Tensions of Mennonites in
Chihuahua:
The Mexican consulate of Minnesota has
confirmed that there are increasing tensions in the Chihuahua region between
Mennonites, non-Mennonites and others over land and water resources. The Consulate also confirms that rumours have
been circulating in the national press of Mexico that the Mennonites are going
to immigrate elsewhere. BUT there has been no
confirmation from authorities in the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), Mexico
or Tatarstan, Russia, that any of the smaller Mexican Mennonite groups have or
are planning to immigrate back to Russia.
You will recall that it is from Russia that these Mennonites’ fore-parents
fled as refugees from legal and religious persecution by Tsarist officials and
later, economic, political and physical persecution from the Soviets.
It seems clear that there have been some
sort of contacts regarding immigration potential by Mennonites from Chihuahua
elsewhere due to the drought and rising tensions with non-Mennonite neighbours. BUT
this is also a very normal thing
for Mennonites. As Mennonites
communities, congregations and kolonies
increase in size, small groups often leave to establish new communities and
farms elsewhere. In fact, Amish and
Hutterite groups within the United States and Canada are constantly making news
with their plans to move to new areas to buy inexpensive land for establishing
new farms, communities and families. So
the entire immigration angle might be true but have nothing to do with any
potential conflict or even the drought.
The Russia and Kazakh angles are interesting only in that they would
indicate a return to the Mennonite diaspora’s ancestral “homeland.”
