A Massacre Foretold

On December 22, 1997, in the southernmost Mexican province of Chiapas, 45 indigenous residents of Acteal, who had taken refuge in the village church, were massacred by paramilitary troops. Most of those killed were children and women (five of them pregnant).

The Acteal villagers were members of the pacifist group "Las Abejas" (The Bees), supporters of the newly emergent Zapatista Army of National Liberation, but who renounced that organization's violent methods. Although the murders of the unarmed peasants garnered worldwide news coverage, no serious government investigation of the atrocity was ever conducted.

A MASSACRE FORETOLD historically and socially contextualizes the massacre, the role of clandestine government death squads, the failure of the government's negotiations with the Zapatistas to even begin to address necessary social reforms (no peace talks have taken place since 1998), as well as the background of racial and economic discrimination against Mexico's indigenous, impoverished population.

http://www.icarusfilms.com/new2008/ma...

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