Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
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Toronto, ON - On December 22, A cloud of witnesses, including CPTers, Catholic Workers, and people dead and alive who have dedicated their lives to nonviolent action, gathered in front of the U.S. consulate to name publicly the responsibility of the U.S. government in the massacre of 45 members of the indigenous Christian organization the Bees, in Acteal, Chiapas two years ago. Participants echoed the call of the Bees that the intellectual authors of the massacre be held accountable for their actions.

In Toronto, the cloud of witnesses heard how the Bees were entering the third day of a fast for peace when they were attacked. Dressed to look like security officers, members of a paramilitary group called the Red Mask shot fasters in the back as they were praying in their chapel. The paramilitaries then chased those who fled, and for five hours ranged around the mountainous, steep-sloped community, killing or maiming anyone they found. Police in an outpost merely a few hundred meters away did not respond during the whole time, despite being directly informed. A military post a mile-and-a-half away also did nothing.

As they listened to the story, participants in the Toronto witness lay down on the sidewalk and others drew chalk outlines of their bodies in commemoration of those who died. A banner proclaimed that "The blood of Acteal is on the hands that signed NAFTA".

The group then gathered to hear the evidence against the U.S. government. Standing in judgment over all towered the figure of Death, in flowing black robes, and with its flesh less skull exposed. Three scrolls were unrolled, and read aloud.

The first scroll named thirteen Mexican officers who have been trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas, including General Rivas Pena, who wrote the 1994 plan for counter-insurgency operations in Chiapas. The gathering was informed that since 1994, Mexico has sent more soldiers to the School of the Americas than any other country.

The second scroll named a list of military equipment given for free by the U.S. government to the Mexican government between 1992 and 1994. It included airplanes, helicopters, thousands of machine guns, and hundreds of thousands of grenades.

The third scroll named the victims of the massacre - twenty-one women (four of them pregnant), nine men, and fifteen children. In addition, seventeen others, including children, were seriously injured.

At the end of the trial, the cloud of witnesses declared that the U.S. government was guilty of the massacre in Acteal.

On the same day, the Bees gathered in Acteal in their monthly memorial of the massacre. Their call for international support and presence to counteract the ongoing threats against their communities.