A Massacre Foretold (review)

This film serves as an excellent example of the power of documentary filmmakers to give voice to those who have limited political and economic power. It is the story of the massacre in Acteal, Chiapas, Mexico on December 22, 1997 of 45 frightened members of the community who were hiding in a church praying for their lives to be spared. Taking as its focus a critical moment in the history of federal militarization of indigenous communities in Mexico, the film provides an orientation for discussing such issues as human rights, legal process, testimony, community reformation, land dispossession, indigenous rights, and the societal role of artists. Of particular interest is the live film footage it presents of events before and after the massacre, providing compelling images of villagers, negotiations, military movements, Mexican and U.S. news broadcasts, and comments by then-President Ernesto Zedillo.

Additional live footage and interviews with members of the community—those who survived by successfully hiding or who were away on the day of the massacre—provides vivid testimony to what happened: the harassment that preceded the massacre; the funeral and mass internment of the victims' bodies; the later consecration of the site; and the figures involved. These testimonies have formed the basis for a subsequent, long-term legal and political struggle for justice.

In addition, the film looks to figures in religion, human rights, and anthropology to contextualize and explore the government's campaign to destroy indigenous community unity and cohesiveness in Chiapas. There are extensive interviews with Bishop of Chiapas, Samuel Ruiz, mediator in the post-massacre peace negotiations, who establishes a sequence to developments in the talks, and with Blanca Martínez, of the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center in Chiapas, who explains the government's approach to the peace talks.

The presence of local collaborators adds complexity to the film's presentation of the events. Anthropologist Andres Aubrey explores the issue of the massacre's "material authors" – those indigenous community members who collaborated with the military and, with those forces' presence and protection, conducted the massacre – and the logic behind considering these individuals as additional victims. With increasing numbers of indigenous people losing their land and means to support themselves, an assault weapon and paramilitary attention afford a rare measure of prestige, leading some young community members to collaborate with the army in an effort to reduce the uncertainty of their own lives. On the other hand, a Tzoltzil woman whose entire family was killed in the massacre states that, "I cannot even bring myself to look at the people who did this." By providing a mechanism for outsiders to become acquainted with individual members of the Acteal community, the film invites connection between people distant from each other, in an effort to contextualize and diminish the Otherness of "the poor" and their limited options for survival.

There is much that the film does not provide. While it chronicles events, starting with the formation of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) in 1994 and including: the early peace talks, the Acteal massacre, the use of paramilitaries by the federal government as a strategy for control and usurpation of indigenous lands, and Zapatista efforts at the continuing development of autonomous zones, it does not provide adequate historical sequencing, explanation, or international or national context. The film leaves unanswered or unaddressed such questions as when Mexican and U.S. television broadcasts took place, when the San Andres peace talks occurred and what agreements were reached, why the government participated in and betrayed the early peace process, and when the government initiated the counterinsurgency strategy and militarization of indigenous communities. Further, it does not annotate some of the footage, even in terms of date, and includes interviews with unidentified individuals. Finally, it is dated, of course, and much has happened since, including recent declassification of documentation of the government's promotion of and support to paramilitaries and recent results of the still-ongoing legal process. Instructors today...