Menonitas - This Time in South America

Mennonites held their world conference in Paraguay this week (where they fled to from the Soviet Union) as many Spanish Language news sources are taking a hard look at them. El Mundo ran a piece on conservative Altkolonier campos in Argentina, while Bolivia has been abuzz about Mennonite colonists in that country due government displacement of Mennonites there as well as a sexual assaults that occurred in one of the communities.

Many of the Mennonites in South America ran there after failing to make things work in Northern Mexico (meaning they ran out of land in Chihuahua and Durango or they decided they didn't want electricity and gas engines) and now we have a real dilema in the south. Business-friendly administrations were eager to take in these agricultural geniuses in the late 80s and early 90s, but now leftist governments are changing the rules and Mennonites are finding themselves on the outs in nations that embraced them - a 500 year old pattern for Mennonites by now.