Introduction
For nearly two decades, Mexico has faced a humanitarian crisis, ranking among the most violent and unequal countries in Latin America (UNDP, 2021). In response, former President López Obrador sought to shift security policies from militarization to a broader approach tackling structural causes of violence. Alongside welfare policies, his strategy included “peace-building” initiatives and promoting a “moral regeneration” of public life through collaboration with religious organizations (National Development Plan 2019-2024).
A component of this shift was elevating the Federal Office of Religious Affairs—long dismissed as the “Office of Unimportant Affairs” and even largely unknown within government circles—from a bureaucratic entity handling administrative requests to an active player in social reconstruction. A new internal regulation tasked the office with engaging religious groups to foster peace and social cohesion (Internal Regulation of the Ministry of the Interior, 2019). This led to the launch of Creamos Paz (Let’s Create/Believe in Peace), a strategy that promotes religious diversity and interfaith dialogue as mechanisms for conflict resolution, involving local officials, interreligious actors, and scholars.
These developments mark a shift from Mexico’s traditionally separationist religion-state model to formal collaboration with religious actors. Scholars in Mexico and the region debate this transformation, with some arguing that growing religious diversity requires rethinking laicidad (secularism) as a governance framework. Some also advise the Mexican government and participate in international efforts promoting religious freedom and interfaith dialogue as policy tools.
I propose that these shifts signal a power reconfiguration, where Evangelicals—rather than the historically dominant Catholic Church—emerge as key governmental interlocutors through collaboration with previously overlooked offices. While framed as pluralistic under world religions discourses, this policy risks marginalizing Indigenous and non-Christian minorities (Afrodiasporic, Metaphysical, Counter-Christian, and Non-Religious) that misfit hegemonic conceptions of religion. A Protestant-inflected secularism seems to be replacing an anti-Catholic reactionary model, creating new winners and losers in the evolving governance of religion.
This paper examines how these policies unfold at local levels, analyzing religious affairs offices’ role in negotiating federal strategies and the influence of subnational and transnational religious actors in shaping secularism.
Data and Methods
This article draws from a broader dissertation project analyzing how religion and secularism are reconfigured as governance tools under Mexico’s "Fourth Transformation" regime. To meet this paper’s goal, I compiled an exhaustive dataset of government regulations and reports from all 32 state-level religious affairs offices, obtained via Mexico’s National Transparency Institute.
Through content analysis, I coded dichotomous variables capturing these offices’ functions and created four additive indices summarizing them: (1) government representation and service provision, (2) legal registration of religious groups, (3) peacebuilding and conflict resolution, and (4) secular oversight and religious monitoring. With reliability coefficients above 0.7, these indices formed the basis for a cluster analysis using the average linkage method, classifying the offices into three types. A Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) analysis further visualizes these classifications in relation to sociodemographic variables like geographic location and religious composition.
By documenting the functions assigned to religious affairs offices, this typology suggests the extent of the federal strategy implementation at the local level. However, anthropologists of bureaucracy note that formal mandates often diverge from practice due to hidden dynamics and informal negotiations (Bierschenk & Olivier de Sardan, 2019; Brady & Lippert, 2016; Hahonou & Martin, 2019; Krohn-Hansen & Nustad, 2010; Sharma & Gupta, 2006). They recommend mixed-methods approaches to understand discrepancies better.
To contextualize my typology, I integrate observations and testimonies from five months of ethnographic fieldwork in government religious affairs offices and interfaith events across 11 states during the summers of 2023 and 2024. I interviewed 72 stakeholders in Mexico’s new religion policy, including officials, interfaith organization members, scholars, and minority groups excluded from government initiatives.
By integrating different analytical layers, my findings offer a snapshot of the dynamics reshaping religious actors’ power within Mexico’s secular governance. I show how subnational actors adapt federal strategies and how global interests influence local practices, disputing public conceptions of religion and secularism.
Results
My analysis identifies regional patterns in the operation of religious affairs offices. Southeastern states, with larger Indigenous and non-Catholic Christian populations, prioritize peacebuilding and legal registration. In contrast, Bajío states, historically Catholic-dominated, show less interest, using these offices mainly for liaising with religious leaders and, to a lesser extent, for legal registration.
Given that Catholic institutions engage the state through unofficial channels, Protestant-Evangelical groups rely more on religious affairs offices as intermediaries. Another key factor in this divergence is religious conflict in Indigenous communities governed by usos y costumbres, where participation in Catholic-Indigenous rituals is often required for community membership. There, Protestant conversions have led to expulsions and, in extreme cases, lynchings. This dynamic has oriented these offices’ design in states like Chiapas, emphasizing peacebuilding and religious freedom advocacy.
My fieldwork revealed that many religious affairs offices lack infrastructure and expertise, prompting collaboration with local and transnational religious actors who, with greater resources, use these partnerships to advance their agendas. Evangelical groups have leveraged local offices to strengthen governmental ties. Frequently, local office directors are also evangelical pastors, a direct violation of Mexico’s constitutional framework.
Despite government rhetoric of religious diversity, my analysis shows that these offices’ operations are not strongly linked to non-Christian minorities. Instead, their activities mainly address Catholic-Protestant conflicts, suggesting that the discourse of religious diversity legitimizes Christian-Evangelical actors more than fostering broad pluralism.
This pattern extends beyond Mexico. Across Latin America, religious affairs offices are shifting to emphasize religious freedom over secular oversight. International organizations, including the OAS and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have funded these initiatives through alliances with advocacy groups like Otros Cruces and Fundación Conciencia Nacional por la Libertad Religiosa. With Mormon leadership, Conciencia Nacional has promoted “Interreligious Councils” nationwide, as local representatives of religious diversity to engage with state authorities. Funded by OAS, Otros Cruces advises the Mexican government and has built alliances among national religious affairs offices in Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Mexico. These actors have elevated religious freedom in governance discussions, shaping policies nationally and locally. My ongoing research explores how these transnational networks shape secular governance across the region.
As part of broader anti-violence efforts, in 2019, the López Obrador administration launched Creamos Paz (Let’s Create/Believe in Peace) through the Office of Religious Affairs. This initiative promotes peacebuilding by collaborating with officials, scholars, and interfaith actors, challenging Mexico’s secular tradition. This paper examines how Mexico’s new religious policy is implemented and negotiated locally. Using a mixed-methods approach—including multivariate analysis, participant observation, interviews, and archival research—I identify two trends: while the Catholic-majority Bajío region remains less engaged, southeastern states, with higher Indigenous and non-Catholic Christian populations, show greater interest. Evangelical actors have strategically leveraged religious affairs offices to strengthen governmental ties. Despite its pluralistic rhetoric, Creamos Paz may advance Evangelical expansion while offering limited engagement—and veiled exclusion—to non-Christian minorities that misfit world religions frameworks. I argue that these developments reflect a broader shift toward Protestant-inflected secularism in Latin America, where religious freedom discourses reshape religious power within secular regimes.