The results of the National Survey on Discrimination (ENADIS) in Mexico, made public this week, has revealed that 15 percent of the population specifically expressed that Protestants should be relocated in special areas that are distant from essentially Catholic communities, in order to protect their rights.

Likewise, those interviewed proposed that in the event of a religious conflict in any area of the country, the local authorities should obey the decision of the majority of the citizens, with absolutely no regard for the right to religious freedom established in the Constitution of the Republic.   

ENADIS identifies the regions with the greatest religious intolerance as being León, Toluca and Torreón, where between 47 to 53 percent of the residents sense the rejection, the absence of acceptance and the discrimination, besides the inequality, as the main scourges against the religious minorities of the country.    

The results of the survey also point out that 16 of every 100 persons who belong to those minorities and who live in the regions of Puebla and Tlaxcala believe that their neighbors are intolerant with them, which causes them fear and stress that influence their way of life, and creates problems for them.    

The matter of discrimination against handicapped persons was also present in the statistics, which identify Puebla, Tlaxcala and Guadalajara as the regions where these citizens suffer unemployment, given the lack of work opportunities that would allow them to be naturally inserted in the community. 40 percent of the handicapped persons interviewed said that they are able to sustain themselves thanks to the economic income of parents and family, in the face of the impossibility of having a regular job.   

ENADIS identifies Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca as being where 41.1 percent of the indigenous inhabitants feel rejected by the labor policies of their respective regions, while also suffering segregation.

The states where youth are more greatly victims of discrimination given the lack of work opportunities and experience, are the Federal District, Querétaro and Puebla in third place, which is seen as being an impediment for a harmonious development of the citizens.   

In Puebla, seven of each 10 persons interviewed said that the authorities should defend the rights of Evangelicals and Protestants to live in any part of the state, so that it be a constitutional guarantee of the right to freedom of worship, which is constantly violated by the Catholics who, as is well known, are the majority in the country.