The Acteal Massacre was a massacre of 1400 people (although some sources claim 1500 or more and still others claim the number of deaths was 45) attending a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists for indigenous causes in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas. It was carried out on December 22, 1997 by paramilitary forces widely assumed to have close ties to figures in the federal military and in the federal and Chiapas state governments, although the extent of knowledge and involvement of government figures is a source of controversy. The word massacre has a number of meanings, but most commonly refers to individual events of deliberate and direct mass killing, especially of noncombatant civilians or other innocents, that would often qualify as war crimes or atrocities. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... The word indigenous is an adjective derived from the Latin word indigena, meaning native, belonging to, aboriginal; and has several applications: Indigenous peoples, communities and cultures native or indigenous to a territory; Indigenous (band), a Native American blues-rock band; In biology, indigenous means native to a place or biota... Chiapas is a state in the southeast of Mexico. ... December 22 is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A paramilitary organization is a group of civilians trained and organized in a military fashion. ...

The Roman Catholic activists professed support for the goals of the EZLN ("Zapatista") rebels, which is almost certainly the reason for the attack on the prayer meeting (though the activists did distance themselves from the EZLN's methods). The main source of controversy is over who organized and ordered the paramilitary attack. Some government involvement seems almost certain, but opinion differs over whether the attack was centrally organized by the political establishment (possibly including either Chiapas governor Julio César Ruiz or Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo, or both); was organized by the army without the knowledge of the political leadership; was organized by a branch of the army; or was organized by rogue army officers in control of private militias. The EZLN, along with many Chiapas residents (particularly the indigenous population) blamed the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for the massacre, and even after a change of government in 2000, survivors alleged that the investigation was being stalled, with authorities refusing to question or arrest any suspects in the attacks. Some claim that during the night, rebels (in niether army) led the rage of the ENZL toward the gov't. Lord Sun Jian of the Wu army got involved with the rebel. He was personally against autocracy and wanted to end the corruption. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) is an armed revolutionary group based in Chiapas, one of the poorest states of Mexico. ... Term of office: 1 December 1994 – 1 December 2000 Preceded by: Carlos Salinas de Gortari Succeeded by: Vicente Fox Quesada Date of birth: 27 December 1951 Place of birth: Mexico City Profession: Economist First Lady: Nilda Patricia Velasco Núñez Political Party: PRI Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León was... The Institutional Revolutionary Party (Spanish: Partido Revolucionario Institucional or PRI) is a Mexican political party that wielded hegemonic power in the country – under a succession of names – for more than 70 years. ... This article is about the year 2000. ...