Deporting of Priests by Mexico Protested : Latin America: Action is seen as an attack on cleric mediating talks between government and rebels in Chiapas.

MEXICO CITY — Protests continued Monday against the deportation of three foreign priests, including a Los Angeles cleric, all from the diocese of controversial Bishop Samuel Ruiz, mediator in the peace talks between the government and rebels in the southernmost state of Chiapas.

As the list of religious orders, civic groups and concerned citizens opposed to the expulsions grew, the Interior Ministry released a statement late Sunday defending its actions. “The federal government has not taken action against any group nor is it attempting to initiate a climate of persecution,” the statement said. “The foreigners were deported for illegal activities and not for work related to their pastoral duties.”

Despite the government disclaimer, the deportations are widely seen as an attack against Ruiz and religious freedom in Mexico. The priests are accused by 16 people in their parishes of encouraging land invasions, harassment and threats against local landholders, the government said. The identities of those making the accusations were not revealed.

Loren Riebe, one of those deported Friday after more than two decades as a parish priest in Chiapas, said the accusations against him and his fellow priests--an Argentine and a Spaniard--”are completely false, an incredible manipulation of the truth.”

On the contrary, he said in a telephone interview, priests had encouraged parishioners to find nonviolent solutions to problems. Violence in Chiapas has received increased attention since the January, 1994, Indian uprising by the Zapatista National Liberation Army.

Two landholders who lived in Riebe’s parish of Yajalon have been killed in land disputes with Indian groups in recent months. “People are hurt,” he said.

Much of their anger has been directed against the Roman Catholic Church, and particularly Ruiz, an outspoken defender of Indian rights. Landholders and merchants throughout the state have organized repeated protest marches--which have sometimes turned into riots--demanding that the government take action against the bishop.

Instead, at the insistence of the Zapatistas, the government has worked with Ruiz to try to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. Still, rumors have persisted that Ruiz is under pressure from other religious leaders--who are working with the government--to resign.

*

Mexico’s Dominican Prior Miguel Concha termed the action “an affront to the pastoral work of the San Cristobal diocese and a blow to Bishop Samuel Ruiz’s indispensable work as a mediator.” That sentiment was echoed by religious and civic groups in statements released over the weekend.

Part of the objections were about the way the priests were detained. Riebe said he received a telephone call Thursday afternoon that the parish car had been stopped outside of town and that he needed to go show police the registration papers. When he arrived in another auto, armed men without uniforms told him to get out of the car. He refused to move until they identified themselves.

Then, uniformed federal police arrived, showed their identification and put him in the back of a pickup with the other two priests for a four-hour ride in the rain to the state capital.

They were flown from the military airport to Mexico City, where they met officials from their respective embassies, Riebe said. They were questioned all night and deported the next morning, he said. No Vatican officials were present.