Indigenous Demonstrators Demand Justice for Victims of 1997 Acteal Massacre teleSUR
go to original December 24, 2015

Hundreds of indigenous people held a demonstration Wednesday in the small village of Acteal in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, to mark the 18th anniversary of the slaughter of 45 people including pregnant women and children.

Demonstrators belonging to the peaceful group of “Las Abejas” (The Bees) decried the killing, labeling it a “state-sanctioned crime” and calling out authorities for the impunity marking the case.

“This state-sanctioned crime remains unpunished and the government does not investigate the intellectual authors ... the Supreme Court ordered the mass release of the paramilitaries who killed our people, only two remain jailed," the group said in a statement released to La Jornada.

On Dec. 22, 1997 gunmen crept down into the center of the impoverished village of Acteal and killed 45 innocent people, including 21 women and 15 children who were attending a mass service.

The case generated international outrage after prosecutors found that local authorities allowed the slaughter to occur and tampered with the crime scene afterward.

Read the rest at teleSUR

Photo: Reuters

Acteal: Ten Years of Impunity - A documentary that tells the truth about the crime of state that occured in December 22, 1997 in the tsotsil community of Acteal, as part of the strategy followed by the mexican government against the organized communities of Chiapas. (Koman Ilel)

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