Qualla: Acteal Massacre

Acteal Massacre: Introduction

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

They were praying when the shooting started. On December 22, 1997, in the small highland village of Acteal in the municipality of Chenalho, Chiapas, 45 members of a pacifist Catholic group called Las Abejas -- The Bees -- were gathered for a prayer meeting. Most were women. Some were children. Several of the women were pregnant. The attack by the right-wing paramilitary group Mascara Roja lasted for hours. Soldiers stationed at a nearby military outpost did not intervene. The following morning, those soldiers were found washing blood from the church walls. It would take 23 years before the Mexican government publicly acknowledged responsibility for what happened.

Read more: Acteal Massacre on Qualla

Acteal Massacre: The Bees

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Las Abejas drew their members from 48 indigenous communities across the highlands of Chiapas. They shared the social justice goals of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation -- the EZLN -- but explicitly rejected violence. Their activism took the form of fasting, prayer, and co...

Read more: Acteal Massacre on Qualla

Acteal Massacre: A Justice Deferred

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The aftermath unfolded in a pattern familiar to survivors of state-linked violence in Latin America: allegations of stalled investigations, reluctance to question suspects, and institutional resistance to accountability. The EZLN and many Chiapas residents accused the PRI of dire...

Read more: Acteal Massacre on Qualla

Acteal Massacre: Twenty-Three Years of Silence

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

It was not until September 2, 2020, that the Mexican state formally acknowledged what the survivors had always known. Alejandro Encinas Rodriguez, Undersecretary for Human Rights, stood before the families and offered a public apology on behalf of the government, admitting that t...

Read more: Acteal Massacre on Qualla

Acteal Massacre: What Remains

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Acteal is still a small village in the misty highlands of Chiapas, where the mountains rise steeply and clouds settle in the valleys. Las Abejas continues its work, its commitment to nonviolence unbroken by the violence inflicted upon it. In November 2006, one hundred men and one...

Read more: Acteal Massacre on Qualla