Refugees’ horror as judge frees ‘massacre ringleaders’

A judge in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas has released six paramilitary members convicted of taking part in the 1997 massacre of 45 rebel sympathisers, sparking fear among refugees who had fled the bloodbath.

The prisoners were convicted of killing 45 Zapatista sympathisers on December 22 while the victims prayed at a chapel in Acteal, a small village 460 miles south east of Mexico City.