The December 22, 1997 Massacre of 46 people in Acteal, Chiapas and the April 27, 1998 assassination of Guatemalan Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera were commemorated in a memorial program sponsored by Peace Action Maine, Pax Christi Maine, Let Cuba Live, the Maine Chapter of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the Maine Chapter of Veterans For Peace, the Maine Foreign Affairs Education Fund, Maine Hispanic Outreach, the Maine Migrant Workers Advocate Group, Inc., and Social Justice and Peace Services of Catholic Charities of Maine. The speakers for the event were Tom Hansen of Chicago, Director of the Mexico Solidarity Network, who was deported by the Mexican government in February 1998 because of his work in Chiapas assisting the people of that region, Filipe and Elena Ixcot, Directors of the International Mayan League/USA's office in Weston, Vermont, and Benjamin Guiliani, Exective Director of the Maine Migrant Workers Advocate Groups, Inc.
The Acteal Massacre points to the continued repression against the largely Mayan Indian and native populations of Chiapas since Chiapas became part of Mexico in the 1820s. Since the native population in Chiapas gained international attention on January 1, 1994 by taking over several towns in the name of the Zapatista National Liberation Front (the "Zapatistas"), the level of brutality in the lives of the people of Chiapas has increased dramatically. The Zapatistas have informed the world about the Mexican government's removal of native people's collective land rights in Chiapas in order to comply with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The native population of Mexico in Chiapas, the poorest segment of the Mexican population, has thus been deprived of the basic source of their livelihood. The United States supplies weapons to the Mexican government and trains Mexican military personnel at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia.
The repression against the people of Guatemala is also against its majority native population, primarily Mayan Indian. Only two days before the Assassination of Bishop Gerardi, the Archbishop's Human Rights Office had issued a historic Report on human rights violations committed during thirty-six years of civil war. The Report attributed nearly 80% of the human rights violations to the military in Guatemala. The Guatemalan civil war began when the United States backed an overthrow of the democratically elected government in 1952. During the entire period of the civil war, the United States supplied weapons to the government of Guatemala. The Report named the principal perpetrators of human rights violations.Bishop Gerardi had headed up the team which wrote the Report.
The assassination of Bishop Gerardi and the subsequent assassinations have shaken the Guatemalan people. It has shocked the world community.The events have seriously threatened the recently established peace.Together with the massacres of Mayan and other native peoples of Chiapas, these events were commemorated on the sixth month anniversary (6/98) of the Acteal Massacre.
For further information or comment on this page, contact Wells Staley-Mays at 207-772-0680 or (FAX) 207-828-8620. E-mail:peaceactionme@ctel.net
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