On December 22, 1997, a painful crime occurred in the town of Acteal located in the Los Altos region of the state of Chiapas, Mexico, in which 45 Tzotzil people (including children and pregnant women) were killed in an attack that had a duration of more than seven hours.
The massacre was perpetrated by paramilitaries while the victims –members of the pacifist group Las Abejas ("The Bees")– attended a pacifist prayer meeting.
The Las Abejas activists professed their support for the goals of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional - EZLN), including their rejection of applying violent means. Many suspect this affiliation as the reason for the attack, and government involvement or complicity. Soldiers at a nearby military outpost did not intervene during the attack, which lasted for hours. The following morning, soldiers were found washing the church walls to hide the blood stains. Some of the pregnant women who were part of the prayer group were intentionally stabbed and shot in the belly to kill their unborn children.
