Actions mark Chiapas massacre
By
Bill Hackwell
San Francisco
International protests and memorials on Dec. 22 marked the
anniversary of the Acteal massacre--when 45 unarmed Tzotzil
Indians were gunned down by a paramilitary unit trained and
armed by the Mexican military. To this day only one person of
the 135 arrested in connection with the massacre has been
convicted.
Here in the United States, some 500 people marched on the
Mexican Consulates in San Francisco and San Jose, Calif.
Demonstrators distributed leaflets to holiday shoppers to
ensure that Acteal will never be forgotten.
The biggest protest, however, took place in Acteal itself.
There, some 10,000 people from the Indigenous communities, from
all corners of Mexico, and representatives from all over the
world marched to the small community that had lost one-quarter
of its population in the attack.
The Indigenous marchers, who complain of daily harassment by
the military, chanted, "Chiapas is not a barracks, army get
out," as they filed by an army outpost near Acteal.
While an enactment of the massacre took place with Zapatista
supporters looking on and the flags of many countries waving,
U.S.-supplied helicopter gunships hovered just above. In a
moving display of solidarity a Navajo woman from the United
States presented the children of Acteal a pair of
moccasins.
"These moccasins are a gift of hope for you to be able to
move ahead and to show you that the Indians of the United
States are with you, brothers and sisters," she said.
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