Responding to rapes in Bolivia

The picture portrays one side of a tragedy: Five young men, some in overalls, peer through the bars of a prison cell. The caption: “Willy Reimer, a missionary working in Bolivia among Old Colony Mennonites, reads Scripture to young Mennonite men imprisoned in connection with a series of assaults.”

The ChristianWeek story that the photo accompanies follows up on a terrible situation in the Manitoba Colony in Bolivia, where 12 men are accused in 140 officially confirmed cases of rape.

Josiah Neufeld recalls the shocking details: “According to reports, gangs of young men from the colony were spraying cattle tranquilizer into open windows at night, then breaking in to rape the sedated women and girls.”

The story mostly describes a visit by a team of Canadians who visited the colony in an effort to bring an evangelical ministry. John Banman of Ontario, coleader of the group, sent by an organization called Power to Change, tells of visiting seven men in prison. All claimed to be innocent, he said, and “after two hours of sharing the gospel, all seven men accepted the Lord.”

Neufeld writes that “the colony is governed by church elders who oppose the infiltration of any other form of faith, including evangelical Christianity.”
But in this case, apparently, the elders welcomed evangelical outsiders because, as Banman put it, “they [the elders] didn’t know what to do.”

What’s the best way to help this hurting community? Not everyone agrees that the Power to Change group’s evangelistic approach was the best. One who questioned it was Hans Werner, co-editor of Preservings, a Winnipeg, Man.-based magazine that covers Mennonite history and conservative groups (and unfortunately is not online). Werner wrote: “The view of some that all that needs to happen is for Bolivian Mennonites to turn to North American-style evangelical Christianity for the problem to be solved is misplaced.”

What’s certain is that the people of Manitoba Colony need our prayers and compassionate response through channels such as Mennonite Central Committee. It’s unfortunate that MCC’s offer of counseling for the victims was rejected. John Janzen, Low German coordinator for MCC Canada, says colony leaders were the ones who rejected this. How could that decision be anything but a terrible mistake? Isolation has been the colonists’ way of life, but they must not shut out assistance now.

MCC continues to look for ways to support the victims, Janzen said. One promising sign he cites is a women’s shelter at Pailon, accessible to the Mennonite colonies, sponsored by the Evangelical Free Church of Canada and the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference.

Mennonites in Winnipeg, Man., are organizing a service of prayer and lament at 7 p.m. Feb. 7 at Morrow Gospel Church for the victims of sexual assaults and abuse in Manitoba Colony. An offering will be taken for the women’s shelter in Bolivia. — Paul Schrag