Nine years after the Dec. 22, 1997 massacre of 45 unarmed Maya Indians at the Chiapas highland hamlet of Acteal, Chiapas, the confessed intellectual author of the attack, Antonio Vazquez Secum, remains free and was never called to testify in the still-open judicial investigation. He is among six who confessed to being the athors of the crime, but whose confessions were rejected by the Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR). Amid mounting charges of irregularities in the case, Ricardo Raphael, leader of an association of Mexican jurors, is calling for the intervention of the Supreme Court of the Nation. (El Universal, Dec. 21) More than 60 have been sentenced in connection with the massacre, but deny their involvement. 38 remain at Chiapas' harsh Cerro Hueco prison. (El Universal, Dec. 18)

Uriel Jarquin Galvez, Chiapas state sub-secretary of government at the time of the massacre, was among those investigated by the PGR for his role. He has just been appointed an advisor to the Michoacan state legislature bloc of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). (Cambio de Michoacan, Dec. 20)

Sources archived at Chiapas95

See also WW4 REPORT #94

See our last posts on Mexico and Chiapas and the Acteal massacre.