Members of las Abejas (the Bees) have invited the CPT-Mexico team to join
in a prayer circle surrounding the community of Acteal to create a
spiritual barrier through which the paramilitary violence cannot pass. CPT
members will join the Acteal community in creating the circle through
prayer and fasting June 4-6.

The recent arrest of Victorio Arias, an accused leader of the December 22,
1997, massacre of 45 Bees in Acteal, has led to renewed threats against the
Bees. Government-affiliated political activists in the region made death
threats against one Abejas leader. There are rumblings that local
paramilitaries are re-organizing to eliminate the nonviolent opposition of
the Bees so that they will cease their demands that those responsible for
the massacre be brought to justice.

The Abejas organized in 1992 as a pacifist Christian group comprised mostly
of Catholic indigenous Mayans in central Chiapas.

We invite churches to join the circle around Acteal by forming symbolic
prayer circles in your homes, in your sanctuaries during Sunday worship, or
other places, and offering prayers of protection. Much spiritual support
is needed in this time of threatened violence.