MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Supreme Court ordered freedom for 20 men convicted in the 1997 massacre of 45 Indian villagers in southern Chiapas state and new trials for six more, ruling Wednesday that prosecutors used illegally obtained evidence.
The bloodshed in Acteal was the worst instance of violence in the Chiapas conflict, which began when the Zapatista rebels staged a brief armed uprising in early 1994 to demand more rights for Indians.
Paramilitaries with alleged ties to government figures attacked a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists who sympathized with the rebels. Over several hours on Dec. 22, 1997, the assailants killed 45 people, including children as young as 2 months.
More than three dozen people, most of them Indians from another town, have been convicted in the case.
