The Acteal massacre was carried out Dec. 22, 1997, in a church where a group of townspeople, consisting of more women and children than men, was gathered for a prayer meeting. The pacifist prayer group that was targeted is known as las Abejas or “The Bees.” Though the shooting went on for hours and strayed from the church to the edge of town, nearby Mexican soldiers never intervened.

On July 22, 2007, 18 people were sentenced to 25 years in prison each for involvement in the massacre.

Being there in a church to commemorate the massacre was an important way to express solidarity with poor and vulnerable people, said Catherine Barry, a member of the St. Anne’s parish Development and Peace group.

Remembering Acteal is a way of affirming the movement against globalization and free trade that ignores the interests of indigenous people, the poor and the marginalized, said Matt Schaaf, who spent time in Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state, with Christian Peacemaker Teams.

“Somehow the struggle in Chiapas entered into a wider imagination,” said Schaaf.

“Acteal is important,” said Schaaf, who brought his daughter Livia Dahl Schaaf to the memorial service.

At the end of the Dec. 22 memorial service the group sent a letter of solidarity to the surviving villagers in Acteal.