On the evening of Oct. 21, an unidentified gunman pumped multiple rounds from a handgun into the passing car of Marcelo Nieva in an apparent attempt to assassinate the 35-year-old pastor of Pueblo Grande Baptist Church.
Neither Nieva nor his passenger, church member Daniel Carreño, suffered injuries in the attack.
In their report to Federal Police the following day, Nieva and his attorney, Alejandro Zeverin Escribano, accused “paid hit men with ties to drug traffickers who have infiltrated the Cordoba police, and who seek vengeance for our pastoral action” of carrying out the assassination attempt.
Christians suspect the pastor may have been targeted in part for helping a single mother in a custody dispute. Nieva said he is not about to back down from his ministry to drug addicts and victims of abuse or from the fight for justice.
“We are struggling and working to uncover the truth of the facts,” he said. “We firmly believe that truth overcomes lies and the light will always vanquish darkness.”
Troubles started for the pastor in 2010, when a 23-year-old, single woman known as “Belen” sought help for herself and her unborn child at the Transit Home for Ladies, a shelter Pueblo Grande Church operates for women fleeing domestic violence and prostitution.
A local district attorney ordered police raids on Pueblo Grande Baptist Church and the Transit Home for Ladies, as well as on Nieva’s private residence.
He found himself facing charges of illicit association, illegitimate privation of liberty, enslavement, fraud and violent abuse.
On Oct. 15, Nieva, attorney Zeverin and elders of Pueblo Grande church met with the Minister of Government of Cordoba, Walter Saieg, and Américo Romero Camaño, secretary of Culture and Worship. They complained to the provincial officials about the harassment campaign in Rio Tercero and the “passivity” of local police.
A week later Nieva narrowly escaped assassination.
The Federal Court of Cordoba immediately assigned security agents to protect the pastor and Carreño. Zeverin expressed concern that the protection order did not go far enough, and he called for a full investigation of the crime and for prosecution of those responsible.
The attempt on the pastor’s life reinforces suspicions in the Argentine-Christian community that his quest for justice is exposing merely the tip of an immense iceberg of corruption involving police, politicians and criminal gangs in Rio Tercero.
Nieva said he has done nothing that should elicit attacks on him or his ministry.
“We have done no other thing than preach the gospel,” he said. “Nothing more, nothing less.” (Morning Star News)
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