Church leaders: Mexican indigenous are forgotten in election debate

Published: 2006-06-20

ACTEAL, Mexico (CNS) -- As Mexico prepares to elect a new president July 2, the problems for indigenous people in Chiapas state seem to be forgotten amid other issues, said a Mexican bishop. "The indigenous issue has been diluted in the other fundamental issue, the economy," said Bishop Felipe Arizmendi Esquival of San Cristobal de las Casas, in the Chiapas highlands. But only eight years ago, days before Christmas 1997, 45 men, women and children were massacred by paramilitary forces in Acteal, a tiny village in the southern Mexican highlands. The survivors still live sandwiched between the community that spawned the killers and a rebel group, the Zapatista National Liberation Army, that blames the government for failing to stop the massacre. Dozens of civilians have been convicted for participating in the slaughter, and some low-ranking government officials have been jailed for failing to prevent it. But locals say little else has changed in their lives, regardless of government promises to bring peace and development to one of Mexico's poorest areas. And the government's neglect for the ongoing conflict in Chiapas could keep indigenous people away from the polls, some have said.

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