Four Christian men in Venezuela experienced a horrid attack where they were not only badly beaten, but were also forced to chew on Bible pages and had crosses etched on their bare flesh.
Open Doors reported this on February 26 and have since asked Christians worldwide to also include Venezuelan believers in their prayers.
"The criminals covered our faces and started to beat and stab us," one of the victims said. "They drew 'X' on our bodies and forced us to eat the Bible."
The victims were attacked inside the Restoration House - a drug rehabilitation center run by a church- in Merida State on February 16.
Open Doors explained that Christian initiatives like the Restoration House are deemed as obstacles to the illegal operations of drug gangs in Latin America.
The organization also noted that while Venezuela is not in its 2021 World Watch List of the Top 50 countries where Christian persecution is rampant, violence against believers in Latin America is on the rise.
The four men have been discharged from the hospital but are still in slow recovery. One of them had two broken ribs and sustained serious injuries on his head and lungs. Two men also had casts on their legs and arms.
Founder Pastor Dugarte said that weeks before the attack, two men openly declared their intent to shut down the Restoration House.
"In the middle of a meeting discussing neighborhood issues, two men said they were going to end the Restoration House because they did not agree with this type of program," Pastor Dugarte told Open Doors
For peace' sake, Pastor Dugarte agreed to meet the conditions of the neighborhood council. But apparently, these two men had another motive. They asked Pastor Dugarte for a list of people in the rehabilitation centre, but he refused to give it to them.
Despite their horrific experience, Pastor Dugarte is still determined to continue his ministry of helping people avoid the path of crime. He has also filed a complaint against the two men present during the neighborhood meeting whom he suspects as the instigators of the violence.
In light of the recent attack, the Evangelical Council of Venezuela called for an investigation. According to Premier Christian News, the council attributed the attack as "hatred towards religion."
Dr. David Landrum, Open Doors UK's director of advocacy and public affairs, said that the cutting of crosses into the bodies of young Christians, and the forced eating of pages of the Bible is deeply disturbing.
"This premeditated attack has all the hallmarks of the local 'collectives' of the Maduro regime. This shows how Venezuela has become a dictatorial narco-state which is violently opposed to the drugs rehabilitation work of the church," he said.
President Nicolás Maduro took office in 2013. According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Venezuelan government under Maduro's administration has "deliberately and repeatedly abused the rights of citizens through the use of violence, repression, and criminalization of demonstrations."
"At his (Maduro) direction, the regime's security forces have systematically repressed and criminalized opposition parties through arbitrary detention, military prosecution of civilians, and the excessive use of force against demonstrators. Any member of the opposition or critic of the regime risks being detained, imprisoned, assaulted, tortured, and assassinated," the Department stated further.
Thus in 2017, the Department imposed sanctions against Venezuelan government officials for their systemic "undermining of democracy in Venezuela."
Maduro's re-election in 2018 was also labeled as fraudulent, not recognized by several countries.
Christians are urged to pray for the victims' healing and grace to continue in their walk towards freedom in Christ. Believers are also urged to pray for Restoration House and Pastor Dugarte's ministry's protection.
