Acteal massacre another indictment of united $tates

Around 30 protestors gathered in front of the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles on 22 December to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Acteal massacre, where right-wing paramilitaries connected to the Mexican government slaughtered 45 peasants, including 15 children. "Many decried the bombing in New York," said one protestor, "but where is the condemnation for this terrorist attack?" Indeed, the Acteal massacre is an example of the hypocrisy of the Amerikan government' "war on terrorism." The united $tates government did not impose sanctions on Mexico, despite the clear connection between the paramilitaries and the government. The united $tates remains the Mexican army's biggest supplier of arms. In fact, the united $tates trained the man who organized the terrorist paramilitaries in psychological warfare and "counterinsurgency" tactics. General Mario Renan Castillo attended the u.$. military's infamous "School of the Americas" at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The attacks on September 11 were a terrible wake-up call to the Amerikan people. Not only did their government fail to protect them, it helped fund and train those who carried out the attacks. To ensure its control of important markets and resources, the united $tates has long trained terrorists and engaged in terrorism itself. A serious discussion of terrorism must acknowledge that. To truly put an end to terrorism, we must do away with the current economic system based on competition.

Radical culture

Activists presented a short play later in the afternoon depicting the massacre, which took place during a religious ceremony. There were two defining moments in the play. The first involved an interchange between Tio Sam (Uncle Sam), dressed in a red, white, and blue stripped top hat, and a campesina (peasant woman) seeking to cross the border from Mexico into Arizona. A Tio- Sam-supported paramilitary group had killed the husband of the campesina. Tio Sam begins to sell the values of Pepsi-Cola, individualism, racism, and American Pie to the campesina. She is being indoctrinated well until a group of campesinas from Acteal finds her and beings to challenge Tio Sam's propaganda. This challenge to the immigrant's blind acceptance of the propaganda of the American Dream was an astute political point to raise in the context of the massacre. The depiction of Tio Sam also served to link the United States to the massacres in Acteal. The second telling part of the play was the interchange between a local Chiapas official and religious leaders who were urging him to intervene to stop the massacre while it as occurring. The local official, while calmly smoking a cigarette, arrogantly proclaimed to those telephoning him that, "Todo esta bajo de control aqui." (Everything is under control here.) Earlier in the play this same official was depicted in the play giving Mascara Rojo both guns and moral support for the massacres they were to commit. (News reports from the period say that Chiapas state secretary of government, Homero Tovilla Christiani, admitted in a news conference that he had received such calls even as gunmen were stalking through the village firing rifles.) Following the play there was an exchange of views between the play's cast and the audience. Many of those present were immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, or other countries in Central or South America. Many spoke of other massacres that had occurred against either peasants, workers, or activists in Latin America Others encouraged those present to do as the campesinas had done in the play, which was to actively struggle with the youth, the adults, and the elders to reject the materialism, individualism, and propaganda of the US imperialism