The Acteal massacre was a massacre of 45 people attending a prayer meeting of Catholic indigenous townspeople, including a number of children and pregnant women, who were members of the pacifist group Las Abejas, in the small village of Acteal in the municipality of Chenalhó, in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Right-wing paramilitary group Máscara Roja murdered the victims on December 22, 1997, while the Government of Mexico first admitted responsibility for the massacre in September 2020.
A monument to the victims
Las Abejas is a Christian pacifist civil society group of Tzotzil Maya formed in Chenalhó, Chiapas, Mexico in 1992 following a familial property dispute that left one person killed. When members of the community took the injured man to the nearest town for medical attention, they were accused of attacking him themselves and jailed. When family members realized what had happened, they began a pilgrimage on foot to San Cristóbal de las Casas. Along the way, Christian pacifists in other villages joined the group, which is dedicated to peace, justice, and anti-neoliberalism. Las Abejas freed their companions and grew as an organization.
A view of Acteal, site of the 1997 massacre that killed 45 members of Las Abejas. The prominent chapel was constructed after the massacre; the wooden chapel in which members of Las Abejas were praying when the massacre began is still standing; its roof is partially visible in the picture above and to the right of the new chapel.
The Pillar of Shame, a statue designed by Danish artist Jens Galschiøt, marks the site of the 1997 massacre of 45 members of Las Abejas in Acteal
