Mexico frees right wing killers
Associated Press, Mexico City | 13.08.2009 08:52
Mexico's supreme court ordered freedom for 20 men convicted in the 1997 massacre of 45 Indian villagers in southern Chiapas state and new trials for six more, ruling yesterday that prosecutors used illegally obtained evidence.
The bloodshed in the village of Acteal was the worst single instance of violence during the conflict in Chiapas, which began when the Zapatista rebels staged a brief armed uprising in early 1994 to demand more rights for Indians.
Paramilitaries with alleged ties to government figures attacked a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists who sympathised with the rebels. Over several hours on 22 December 1997, the assailants killed 45 people, including children as young as two months old.
More than three dozen people, most of them also Indians from another town, have been convicted in the case. The supreme court ruled that 20 of them must be freed, while six will remain in prison but get new trials.
"During the investigation, their constitutional rights were violated," the court said in a statement. "The majority of cases ... were based on the use of illegally obtained evidence."
The court cited irregularities such as the fact that suspects – largely speakers of the Tzotzil Indian language – were not provided with translators. Prosecutors also apparently took pictures of the suspects and showed them to witnesses, who later identified the men as perpetrators.
The judges noted that they were not ruling on the guilt or innocence of the men.
Antonio Arias, who was wounded in the attack, called the ruling unfair and warned of unrest in Acteal if those released returned there.
"We feel a lot of pain in our hearts because we think it's unfair that after almost 12 years these people are being freed when we know they are responsible because we saw them," Arias said in the nearby city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, where members of his community gathered to pray for the continued imprisonment of those convicted in the massacre.
"If they are freed there will be tension in our communities and perhaps even new displacements," Arias said.
Arturo Farela, who leads an association of evangelicals in Chiapas that argues the innocence of those tried, most of whom lived in the town of Chenalho, celebrated their release but also warned of possible tensions.
"The social fabric of Chenalho is weak and the government needs to investigate and punish the people who are truly responsible but also those who ordered the killings," Farela said.
At the time of the massacre, Chiapas was deeply divided between supporters of the Zapatistas and backers of the Institutional Revolutionary party, which ruled Mexico for70 years until it lost the 2000 presidential election.
Officials said the killings were motivated by a land dispute between two Tzotzil Indian communities. But victims' families say the massacre resulted from a bid to crush the Zapatistas, with state officials providing weapons and paramilitary training for the attack.
Justice in the case has been slow. It was not until 2002 that several men were convicted. In 2007 – a decade after the massacre – courts sentenced 34 men to 26 years each for the killings.
The bloodshed in the village of Acteal was the worst single instance of violence during the conflict in Chiapas, which began when the Zapatista rebels staged a brief armed uprising in early 1994 to demand more rights for Indians.
Paramilitaries with alleged ties to government figures attacked a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists who sympathised with the rebels. Over several hours on 22 December 1997, the assailants killed 45 people, including children as young as two months old.
More than three dozen people, most of them also Indians from another town, have been convicted in the case. The supreme court ruled that 20 of them must be freed, while six will remain in prison but get new trials.
"During the investigation, their constitutional rights were violated," the court said in a statement. "The majority of cases ... were based on the use of illegally obtained evidence."
The court cited irregularities such as the fact that suspects – largely speakers of the Tzotzil Indian language – were not provided with translators. Prosecutors also apparently took pictures of the suspects and showed them to witnesses, who later identified the men as perpetrators.
The judges noted that they were not ruling on the guilt or innocence of the men.
Antonio Arias, who was wounded in the attack, called the ruling unfair and warned of unrest in Acteal if those released returned there.
"We feel a lot of pain in our hearts because we think it's unfair that after almost 12 years these people are being freed when we know they are responsible because we saw them," Arias said in the nearby city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, where members of his community gathered to pray for the continued imprisonment of those convicted in the massacre.
"If they are freed there will be tension in our communities and perhaps even new displacements," Arias said.
Arturo Farela, who leads an association of evangelicals in Chiapas that argues the innocence of those tried, most of whom lived in the town of Chenalho, celebrated their release but also warned of possible tensions.
"The social fabric of Chenalho is weak and the government needs to investigate and punish the people who are truly responsible but also those who ordered the killings," Farela said.
At the time of the massacre, Chiapas was deeply divided between supporters of the Zapatistas and backers of the Institutional Revolutionary party, which ruled Mexico for70 years until it lost the 2000 presidential election.
Officials said the killings were motivated by a land dispute between two Tzotzil Indian communities. But victims' families say the massacre resulted from a bid to crush the Zapatistas, with state officials providing weapons and paramilitary training for the attack.
Justice in the case has been slow. It was not until 2002 that several men were convicted. In 2007 – a decade after the massacre – courts sentenced 34 men to 26 years each for the killings.
Associated Press, Mexico City