Chiapas: Anniversary of the Acteal massacre

Image @ Santi Armengod

15 years after the massacre of 45 persons committed in Acteal, Chenalhó municipality, Chiapas, indigenous persons associated with the Las Abejas Civil Society–to which the victims also pertained–commemorated these acts with a pilgrimage and ceremony. During the pilgrimage from the Majomut ejido, 45 indigenous youth carried crosses with the names of their relatives who were killed during the attack.

During the ceremony in which participated people and collectives from Chiapas, other states in Mexico, and other countries, the Las Abejas Civil Society released a communique in which it also expressed joy, given that this year its members celebrate 20 years since the organization’s founding. Nonetheless, it denounced that “Today, 15 years after the Acteal massacre, the government continues to deny that it was a crime of State, and far from undertaking a profound investigation, it continues with its counterinsurgency strategy to harass our organization and the survivors, so as to create conflict and/or division within and among the communities and organizations which struggle. This governmental attitude has degraded real justice and the recognition of the truth regarding the events of the massacre.”

The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center fro Human Rights, which has accompanied Las Abejas since the beginning of the process, reaffirmed in its pronunciation that “the Mexican State has promised not only to guarantee but also make-deeper the situation of impunity so as to protect the authors, material and intellectual, of the worst assaults in our Historical Memory.”

For its part, the organization Amnesty International (AI) requested that state and federal authorities make justice and compensate the victims, indicataing that “the remembrance of this massacre continues as one of the darkest moments of the recent history of Mexico. The failures of the authorities in clarifying the crimes, investigating and bringing to justice all persons responsible, whether by action or omission, and in providing adequate compensation to the victims does nothing but to worsen this darkness.”

For more information (in Spanish):

Comunicado de la Sociedad Civil Las Abejas (22 de diciembre de 2012)

Boletín: Hoy, se cumplen 15 años de impunidad, 15 años de sobrevivir al olvido, 15 años de ejemplo de vida en un contexto de tanta muerte. (Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, 22 de diciembre de 2012)

Pide AI castigar a responsables de la matanza en Acteal (Proceso, 22 de diciembre de 2012)

Conmemoran los 15 años de Acteal con peregrinación (El Universal, 22 de diciembre de 2012)

Estado tiene ‘deuda de justicia’ a 15 años de Acteal: Amnistía (El Universal, 22 de diciembre de 2012)

Conmemoran a indígenas asesinados en 1997 en Chiapas (La Jornada, 22 de diciembre de 2012)

Acteal sin hallar descanso (El Universal, 23 de diciembre de 2012)

Acteal: 15 años de impunidad (La Jornada, 23 de diciembre de 2012)

For more information from SIPAZ (in English):

Chiapas: Commemoration of 20th anniversary of Las Abejas and coming 15th anniversary of the Acteal massacre (21 December 2012)

Chiapas: Survivor of Acteal massacre dies (16 November 2012)