Mexico's President Ernesto Zedillo has ordered a federal investigation of a brutal attack on Indian villagers in Acteal on Monday. At least 45 residents of the southern Mexican community are reported dead, and another 20 wounded. Most of the victims were women and children, who are alleged to have been gunned down by a paramilitary group with possible links to Mexico's ruling party, the PRI. Charles Krause provides a background report, followed by a discussion with guests.

CHARLES KRAUSE: Monday's massacre took place in a tiny Indian hamlet called Acteal in Mexico's southernmost state--Chiapas. According to news reports and survivors, a column of gunmen entered Acteal in broad daylight, then systematically gunned down the Indian villagers--some of them at prayer in a local church. According to the Red Cross, at least 45 of Acteal's residents were killed and nearly 20 more wounded. Local hospitals were treating the injured--a majority of them women and children.

Residents of Acteal told reporters they had been warned last week that if they did not leave the village, there would be violence. Witnesses said there was reason to believe the gunmen, armed with AK47's, may have been members of a paramilitary group called "Red Mask." Some of the gunmen, in fact, were reportedly wearing police uniforms with the insignias removed. Allegedly, the "Red Mask" paramilitary group has links to local members of Mexico's long-ruling establishment and its political instrument--the Institutional Revolutionary Party, also known as the PRI.

Speaking for the Catholic Church in Chiapas, Father Gustavo Ituarte said Monday's attack was a deliberate attempt by the PRI and its supporters among the wealthy in Chiapas to stop the Indians' campaign for land reform and greater autonomy. "This is an act of war. It's a provocation," Father Ituarte said. "Each time there have been steps towards peace, towards dialogue, there have been acts of sabotage."

The seriousness of Monday's violence was underscored yesterday when Mexico's president, Ernesto Zedillo, ordered a federal investigation. Speaking on nationwide television, Zedillo condemned the massacre as "a cruel, absurd, unacceptable criminal act." But despite Zedillo's concern, Monday's massacre was only the latest in a long list of killings aimed at intimidating reformers and other government opponents in Chiapas. Located along Mexico's border with Guatemala some 1500 miles south of Mexico City, Chiapas first came to the world's attention four years ago.

On New Year's Day, 1994, guerrillas belonging to a then-unknown guerrilla group called the Zapatistas, attacked government soldiers. The Zapatistas' demands for economic and social justice made headlines and helped focus attention on long-simmering tensions between various indigenous tribes and the government in Chiapas--controlled by the PRI and the local oligarchy. Faced with the prospects of a guerrilla war, Mexico's federal government entered into negotiations with the Zapatistas almost immediately after the first attack, and a cease-fire was quickly agreed to. But the peace process has stalled since 1994, and more than 300 Zapatista sympathizers have been killed by paramilitary groups. Some government sympathizers have also been killed. Today, Zapatista Leader Commandant Marcos issued a communique blaming the government for Monday's massacre.