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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/world/americas/06mexico.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1162790406-fnPAxU+oiKIlU0nigWz0Cw
November 6, 2006
Protesters March in Oaxaca and Order Police to Pull Up Stakes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OAXACA, Mexico, Nov. 5 (AP) — Thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched through this tense city on Sunday, demanding that security forces abandon positions the forces set up last week to end a five-month protest.
Masked police officers clutching automatic weapons watched from rooftops as the protesters marched to a plaza about a block away from their encampments, yelling, “Get out federal police!”
The leaders then formed a human chain to keep the crowd of an estimated 20,000 people from confronting the police, but about 400 people broke through and attacked the officers with stones and bottles. Some of the police officers lobbed rocks back, while officers on rooftops used slingshots to shoot marbles at those trying to confront the police.
A radio station at Oaxaca’s university, where the leftists had set up their base last week, reported that gunmen had fired at some protesters near the university earlier Sunday, wounding a 21-year-old student, who was taken to a public hospital.
The hospital confirmed that a student had been brought in with a bullet wound. There was no immediate government reaction to the report.
About 4,000 federal police moved into the city on Oct. 29 to restore order following a five-month protest that had rattled President Vicente Fox’s administration, scared tourists out of Oaxaca and left more than a dozen people dead, mostly protesters shot by armed gangs.
After being chased out of the city center, the demonstrators moved to the university. The police surrounded the campus last week and battled hundreds of protesters.
On Saturday, masked protesters detained and blindfolded two men near the university, accusing them of being spies for the federal police.
The Defense Ministry said in a statement Sunday that the men were soldiers who were tied up, beaten and robbed before being released. The ministry condemned the action but said it maintained its “commitment to the Mexican people” in “staying on the sidelines of the current situation occurring in the capital of the state of Oaxaca.”
The protests began in May when teachers went on strike for better pay and conditions in Oaxaca, one of Mexico’s poorest states. When the police violently broke up one of their demonstrations in June, protesters expanded their demands to include the ouster of the state governor, Ulises Ruiz, whom they accuse of rigging the 2004 election that brought him to power.
Now the demonstrators also want the federal police to leave.
“They don’t guarantee security; to the contrary, they scare us and are rude,” said Jesús Velasco, 60, a businessman who was marching Sunday.
But the Fox administration says the federal troops are there to restore order.
“We do not see them as part of the problem,” Interior Undersecretary Arturo Chávez told reporters on Saturday. “We see them as part of the solution.”
Outside the cathedral on the city’s main plaza on Sunday, Archbishop José Luis Chávez called for an end to the conflict. “Each person should be committed to bringing about peace,” he said.
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http://www.narconews.com/Issue43/article2307.html
November 5, 2006
Caravana Arrives in Oaxaca for Megamarch
In Support of the APPO, Mexico City Residents Weather a Military Search Before Arriving in Oaxaca
By Julie Webb-Pullman
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
Yesterday, as the caravana of supporters from Mexico City left Hemiciclo at noon for Oaxaca, hundreds crowded the streets to cheer them on their way. This scene was repeated throughout their journey, with cheering people lining the highway at several points. The ten buses and fifty cars that left DF had been joined by scores more along the way, and despite several “arms searches” by military, carrying assault rifles (the only people actually carrying guns), the caravana arrived after a twenty hour trip. Scores of appreciative locals, including and a brass band beneath the monument to Juarez at Crucero de Viguera, greeted them.
Following the gross and systematic human rights abuses of the past week, a contingent of human rights observers accompanied the caravana, and despite the military reinforcements brought in during the night by helicopter, today’s march drew between 15,000 and 20,000 people. The demonstration was peaceful and without incident, apart from a Technological Institute student shot in the chest in front of Radio Universidad before the march began. According to local reports, Marcos Manuel Sanchez Martinez is alive and receiving medical care.
Locals thronged the streets and over-bridges cheering, clapping and shouting support to welcome the marchers from Mexico City and other states.
Entire families turned out, from the oldest to the youngest, just like they did last Thursday to defend the University from the threatened military invasion.
Police presence was minimal. Even at the endpoint of the march, when they reached [Santo Domingo] Church, the only police were plains-clothed officers who were spying on and filming the crowd. For that small mercy, at least, Oaxaca can be thankful today.
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http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20061105&articleId=3712
November 5, 2006
The Popular Uprising in Oaxaca, Mexico
Oaxaca En Lucha
The crisis in Oaxaca, Mexico has intensified over the last week. The popular uprising, which began with teachers' strikes and has now extended into a wider revolt, and open confrontation with the Mexican state. It is part of a more general crisis of the Mexican state that has emerged with the fraudulent Mexican presidential election revealing the empty shell that is liberal democracy in Mexico, and the failures of the Mexican economy since the formation of NAFTA in 1994, indeed, the worsening income inequalities in Mexico that have resulted. Over the past week Governor Ulises Ruiz sent heavily armed police officers dressed as civilians to attack protestors throughout the state Capitol. Assailants have been identified through video footage and photos as municipal police officers and PRI officials from Santa Lucia del Camino, a suburb of Oaxaca City. New York Indymedia journalist Brad Will was killed on Friday afternoon from two gunshot wounds to the abdomen. At least two teachers died as well.
Police forces have also launched an assault on the main university in Oaxaca. Over the last few days a battle has raged on Avenida Universidad. It is a north-south four-lane road a little over a half-mile long. University City occupies a roughly square block a little more than one-quarter mile on each side. This is the main campus of the Benito Juarez Autonomous University of Oaxaca, located about 1.1 mile southeast of the Zócalo, where the uprising has been centred. This area is supposedly 'autonomous' in the strict sense that the university authorities have exclusive control over the area. Police, military, federal authorities, and state officials are in principle not allowed to enter the grounds unless explicitly invited by the Rector of the university. The confrontations and uprising continue.
In support of the teachers and people of Oaxaca, and against the police actions and thuggery of the government, solidarity protests have been held in several cities across Canada, including a very successful demonstration today in Toronto at the Mexico Consul office in the heart of Bay Street, Canada's financial district. The articles here discuss the Oaxaca uprising and the linkages between Mexico and the Canadian state.
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Oaxaca En Lucha: Oaxacan Uprising Escalates
Rogelio Cuevas Fuentes and Lindsay Windhager
Ulises Ya Cayo! Todo el Poder para el Pueblo!
Oaxaca, Mexico is currently the site of a radical popular uprising aimed at ousting the corrupt, repressive and illegitimate regime of Oaxacan Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. This remarkable movement signifies a profound transformation in Oaxacan politics and political consciousness that could culminate in the emergence of real alternative political models in Oaxaca. Moreover, the Oaxacan struggle will undoubtedly serve as an example for other impoverished states dealing with dictatorial and corrupt governing bodies; particularly on the heals of fraudulent presidential elections that have deepened existing cleavages in the country.
The movement emerged in response to violent and repressive tactics that were utilized to suppress striking teachers affiliated with the National Education Workers Union – Section 22 (SNTE) on June 14, 2006. In Mexico, the SNTE 22 is known for its militancy and its commitment to social change. The teachers had been on strike since May 22, 2006. Their list of demands included legal recognition of Radio Plantón, an unlicensed community radio that serves as an important medium of communication for social activists and movements, improvements to educational infrastructure (construction of classrooms, laboratories and workshops; free student breakfasts; uniforms and more funding for scholarships and staff hiring) and salary increases. Ulises' June 14 police raid was met with outrage and the 3,000 deployed police officers were driven out of the city centre by the teachers. The following day, thousands of people marched through the streets demanding that Governor Ruiz Ortiz step down. The number of deaths, disappeared, injured and detained is still unclear but it is believed that between six and nine people were killed and a woman miscarried. Moreover, installations of the Radio Plantón were destroyed and the SNTE 22 office building was vandalized.
The massive uprising now underway is a result not only of the abhorrent tactics employed on June 14 but in response to years of oppression, exploitation and injustice. Oaxaca is one of the three poorest states in the country and has the highest percentage of indigenous people of any state in Mexico. Its teachers are among the poorest paid. The state boasts sixteen different indigenous communities speaking a variety of dialects and maintaining distinct traditions and cultures. Over the last several decades, Mexican economic development policies have further entrenched Oaxacan communities in a cycle of bare subsistence and poverty. "Under pressure from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and conditions placed on U.S. bank loans and bailouts, the government has encouraged foreign investment, while cutting expenditures intended to raise rural incomes. Prices have risen dramatically since the government cut subsidies for necessities like gasoline, electricity, bus fares, tortillas, and milk." In recent decades, Oaxaca has also seen a growth in foreign ownership of companies and businesses signifying the dismantling of unions and the further concentration of wealth and property in the hands of a few.
Furthermore, Oaxaca is home to ongoing electoral fraud, by which means Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz was elected. He represents the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional), which maintained a dictatorship in Mexico for more than 70 years at the federal level. Although the presidency is now held by the PAN, the PRI maintains a stronghold in Oaxaca and continues its legacy of corruption, neoliberal economic policies and overt political repression. Political leaders silence Oaxacan protest and dissent through violent and repressive tactics, illegal arrests as well as politically motivated disappearances, torture and imprisonment.
The horrific events of June 14th coupled with decades of economic and political injustices provoked the Oaxacan people to respond to the state with demands for an alternative governing structure and the ousting of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. On June 17th, the People's Popular Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) was born as a mechanism through which to work towards these ends. The APPO is an association of diverse organizations and individuals including unions, student groups, NGOs, human rights groups and indigenous communities and groups dedicated to the ousting of Ruiz Ortiz, to community-based action, popular decision making and an alternative economic and political model. " /is born in response to authoritarianism, to state terrorism, to fascism, it is born with the hope of a new world and future of equality, without the exploited and exploiters./"
The political actions of the APPO have escalated in numbers and scale. These actions include the occupation of state-owned radio stations and television stations, sit-ins, mega-marches of close to a million people and road blockades. Indeed, people from all over Mexico and abroad have been able to show solidarity with this movement through the utilization of the radio. Most recently, the APPO and its supporters marched from Oaxaca City to Mexico City. On October 9th, they arrived at the Zócalo in Mexico City where they set up an encampment outside the Senate buildings. The large group of marchers was met in many towns and communities with incredible support and solidarity. In Tepetlixpa Cuautla in the state of Morelos, the caravan was hit by a terrible rainstorm. The marchers set up camp but were soaked and cold. This town mobilized itself and organized sleeping arrangements for all of the marchers and provided them with clothes, food and food for the trip ahead. In Nezahualcoyotl, in the state of Mexico, the caravan received an incredibly warm reception. In Neza, the municipal president is Oaxacan as are many of the residents who sympathize with the unacceptable state violence and injustice characteristic of Oaxaca. Supporters such as those encountered by the protesters in Neza and Tepetlixpa Cuautla signify the ways in which other Mexicans now see political struggle as exemplified by Oaxaca as achievable.
However, as the movement becomes more and more powerful, state and business interests are taking measures to implement repressive and violent tactics in order to regain control of the state. Ruiz Ortiz has been accused on several occasions of an inability to govern Oaxaca as the state has been essentially paralyzed by the political actions of the APPO. Under pressure to resolve this crisis before Calderón, illegitimate winner of the 2006 presidential elections, assumes power in December, Ruiz Ortiz has resorted to clandestine tactics and a systematic violation of human rights in order to dismantle the movement. Since June, numerous disappearances have been reported as well as gunfire and brutal beatings at sit-ins and marches, harassment, destruction of property, illegal detention and torture of participants and the murder of many APPO organizers and supporters including children.
At the beginning of October, both marines and army troops were deployed to the city of Oaxaca and surrounding areas and repression seemed imminent. However, apart from ongoing repressive tactics carried out by plainclothes police and army personnel, a large-scale repression has not yet occurred. In response to accusations that Ruiz Ortiz has lost control of Oaxaca and at the request of the APPO and SNTE 22, the Senate, on October 13th, sent Senators to assess the crisis of Oaxaca and the level of unrest. A decision has not yet been made on this assessment as to whether or not Ulises Ruiz Ortiz will be requested to step down. This decision is expected as early as Tuesday, October 17, 2006.
At the same time, the Federal government has engaged in a dialogue with representatives of the SNTE 22 and APPO regarding an end to the strike and a return to work. The government offered a tantalizing economic package to the teachers, who in normal times receive poverty wages and are not suffering special hardship as a result of the suspension of their income since August. This package would provide back pay to all teachers who have been living without any income for several months. The offer expires as of October 16, 2006, at which time all teachers have been requested to return to work. If not, the Secretary of State Carlos Abascal Carranza has threatened that the use of public forces may be the only remaining option. Sub-secretary of Government, Arturo Chavez, has also stated that if an agreement cannot be reached, this will undoubtedly allow for consideration of "other kinds of actions." Indeed, federal actors including Chavez and Carranza have confirmed that they feel confident about the steps they have taken in order to resolve the conflict peacefully and that they do not view the use of public forces as a failure of negotiations but rather as a part of politics.
As of October 9, 2006, Oaxacan state forces have been managed by the federal government in a so-called effort to ensure public safety and the re-establishment of security for Oaxacan people. However, on October 12, violence erupted once again in Oaxaca. Plainclothes police officers opened fire on a group of 120 teachers and members of the APPO in downtown Oaxaca. Four participants were injured. Ironically, the Sub-Commission of the Senate set to determine governability in Oaxaca was present in Oaxaca on the 12th. Moreover, on October 14th, military personnel dressed in plainclothes opened fire and killed Alejandro Garcia Hernandez at one of the barricades. Garcia Hernandez was shot twice in the head. Abascal and other government officials claim that such attacks are the work of "violent groups" but it appears rather likely that this explanation is merely an effort to assume impunity as is customary.
As a result of this political violence, teachers decided to cancel the State Assembly and consultations that had been scheduled to discuss the proposal of the Secretary of State until after the decision of the Senate or the removal of Ruiz Ortiz.
At the same time, the APPO continues to escalate its political action in response to repression and the unwillingness of Ruiz Ortiz to step down. The APPO has announced the commencement of a hunger strike that will continue until Ruiz Ortiz resigns. Members of the APPO and SNTE 22 have formed and re-enforced new security areas in Mexico City in key strategic locations including President Fox's residency and federal government buildings. The APPO has also stated that they are planning a mega-march and a national protest based out of Mexico City slated for October 21st in solidarity with the Oaxacan struggle. Moreover, student groups, social groups and supporters of the SNTE and APPO are working tirelessly in Mexico City to disseminate information about the struggle and to coordinate solidarity actions on a national scale. In spite of violent state repression, the Oaxacan movement is transforming into a national struggle with international support and recognition.
As for the disappeared, imprisoned, tortured, murdered and injured members and supporters of the APPO and SNTE 22, there has been little mention of justice and even less recognition of the atrocities that have been committed by the Mexican state. The fight for recognition of these individuals and their sacrifices will be ongoing but it is certain that the Oaxacan people are committed to achieving justice through their struggle. Indeed, this process has already commenced. On October 13th, a group of Oaxacan lawyers presented evidence of state repression that occurred on June 14th to the Superior Tribunal of Justice. The outcome of this exhibition of evidence is not yet known but it signifies the ongoing strength and commitment of Oaxacans to the justice and dignity of those that have been harmed in the struggle for change.
Regardless of how things unfold in the coming weeks, the Oaxacan uprising has been an extraordinary success. In addition to state violence and repression, this movement has overcome and continues to work to overcome many challenges including a lack of resources, dissemination of misinformation at state and national levels by the Mexican government and bourgeoisie and the unification of diverse communities traditionally divided along lines of class, culture, ideology, language, education and geography. The Oaxacan struggle has created momentum for long-term political change in Oaxaca. Moreover, this movement has cultivated a new and strengthened social fabric that is unified in political consciousness and commitment to social change. Oaxaca will undoubtedly serve as an example of popular and democratic resistance in Mexico in spite of extreme efforts to dismember the movement by state force. •
Rogelio Cuevas Fuentes is a Oaxacan-born political activist currently living in Toronto. Lindsay Windhager is a graduate student at York studying Mexican politics and themes of migration.
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http://www.spokesmanreview.com/nation_world/story.asp?ID=158160
November 5, 2006
Huge anti-police march planned in Oaxaca
Ioan Grillo / Associated Press
OAXACA, Mexico – Rickety buses and cars carrying leftists from across Mexico rolled into Oaxaca's university Saturday to join protesters preparing for a massive march to confront police.
Demonstrators plan to march today from the university to police encampments in the center of the city as part of their five-month protest to oust the state's governor.
At least nine people have died since August in the unrest, which has rattled outgoing President Vicente Fox's administration. The planned march has sparked fears of more violence in the colonial city that was once one of the country's main tourist attractions.
Masked federal police clutching automatic rifles took rooftop positions above the city's main plaza, where other officers reinforced blockades. A commander briefed a group of police late Saturday.
"There is going to be a mega-march tomorrow. Be prepared. Keep your bulletproof vests on at all times," he said.
Protest leader Flavio Sosa, who is wanted by state police on conspiracy and riot charges, said the marchers will not look for a fight today, but he fears police may provoke one.
"Our enemies carry out murders, persecution and arbitrary arrests," Sosa told the Associated Press. "We have the right to defend ourselves."
Mexico's largest leftist group, the Democratic Revolution Party, has said it would join the protesters who want to form human chains around federal police detachments that enter the city.
The public university of 30,000 students in this southern city has been transformed into a stronghold for protesters since Fox sent in thousands of federal police last weekend to drive protesters from the city center, which they had seized. The demonstrators poured onto the campus after the police pushed them out of the main plaza, where they had camped out for months.
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http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061120/oaxaca
Posted online on November 4, 2006
Que Pasa en Oaxaca?
by MICHAEL MCCAUGHAN
A virtual state of siege prevails in Oaxaca City where thousands of military police have occupied the central square and surrounding streets, clearing barricades and detaining dozens of opposition activists. The city's emergency services are idle while banks and schools remain closed and the city center, usually bustling with tourists, has the air of a ghost town. The hub of activity has shifted to the Santo Domingo church where thousands of activists gather daily to swap news, make plans and denounce police brutality.
The federal police occupation began on October 28 with an aggressive push toward the Zocalo (town square) which was occupied in June by teachers, students and workers demanding the removal of discredited state governor Ulises Ruiz. The roots of the conflict go back a month earlier when teachers occupied the city square in demand of better pay. This annual protest dates back twenty-six years and the ritual typically ends with a small wage increase being approved. This time, however, Governor Ruiz violently evicted the teachers from the square, provoking a popular uprising.
Workers and students united to shut down government offices and seized local radio and television stations. The state government ground to a halt and Ruiz has gone into hiding, communicating through paid announcements in the press.
"The conflict in Oaxaca is almost over," announced Ruiz on Friday--confirmation, if it was necessary, that his hiding place must be a long way from Oaxaca.
The opposition formed the Oaxaca People's Popular Assembly (APPO), which comprises 200 organizations drawn from 600 villages and towns across the state, all determined to stand firm until Ruiz has left office and with him the federal security forces.
The APPO is a temporary alliance of activists ranging from moderates with links to the ruling party to radicals calling for armed struggle to overthrow the state. In conversation with APPO members this week there was consensus that the time had come to replace traditional political parties with community-based governing assemblies, in keeping with indigenous tradition.
On the eve of the police occupation the teacher's union signed a wage agreement and agreed to go back to work. The push to topple Ruiz would have continued but the core of the resistance movement was effectively neutralized. On that same day, however, government officials opened fire on a group of protestors, killing US citizen Brad Will and raising the profile of the dispute internationally.
Under pressure to resolve the impasse, President Fox dispatched police with orders to retake the square and dismantle barricades around the city. Mexico's congress simultaneously pushed for the resignation of Ruiz, to ease tensions. However the plan backfired as Ruiz refused to step down and appears determined to hang on until the bitter end.
The governor represents the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico from 1929 until 2000, combining populism with repression. In recent years the PRI has seen its power base eroded around the country, but Oaxaca, where the party has governed uninterruptedly for seventy-seven years, remains a significant fiefdom.
The situation is further complicated by the upcoming handover of presidential power to Felipe Calderón on December 1. Calderón's National Action Party (PAN) needs PRI support to govern effectively in congress and legitimize its candidate's feeble electoral victory. It is believed that Ruiz has demanded the PAN support him in return for PRI cooperation in the coming months.
Meanwhile, the military police have failed to crush the resistance movement. Indeed it is the federal police themselves who now look surrounded and isolated as they camp out in the square. In a dynamic new tactic protestors surge toward the square, chanting slogans and testing defenses at different entry points.
According to internal security documents, the police mission comprises three phases; the retaking of the square and clearing of all major barricades; the seizure of occupied radio and TV stations; and a final phase in which arrest warrants would be served on 200 APPO members and a major clampdown imposed to dampen resistance efforts.
The square was retaken last weekend in a day of violence, which saw three people killed, dozens more injured and at least fifty people detained. The APPO militants abandoned barricades rather than clash with heavily armed police, but for every dismantled barricade three more appeared at significant intersections across the city.
On Thursday police engaged in running battles with protestors outside the university campus, where several people were snatched by police and taken by helicopter to a nearby airbase. The local police have also set up a "safe house" opposite a soft drink warehouse, where neighbors have reported cries of torture from "ghost" detainees yet to be formally charged or processed through the courts. There are now seventy-nine prisoners and thirty-seven "disappeared" citizens, sparking a desperate search by concerned relatives.
The authorities believed that by clearing the square, a potent symbol of APPO power, the movement would lose its focus. However, the repression has only multiplied the resistance as students shut down university faculties across Mexico and Zapatista rebels closed down the Panamerican Highway near Guatemala. Radio Universidad, playing a vital role in coordinating APPO activities, has been broadcasting hundreds of declarations of support from around the world.
By the end of the week President Fox had declared that he was leaving the Oaxaca conflict to his successor, Felipe Calderón. At a meeting with stockbrokers this week, Calderón outlined his future strategy for guaranteeing security around the country; "Will it be easy?" he reflected, "No...this is a problem which will take time, money and very probably it will cost more lives. "
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http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/78731.shtml
November 04, 2006 03:02PM EST ]
This Week in Oaxaca: The Continuing Lies and Their Truths
11/04 | What the government and the mass media say about the struggle in Oaxaca and the peoples truth.
By By Magdalena Dubois, translation by Calamity
What the government and the mass media say about the struggle in Oaxaca and what people know to be true.
Keywords: Analysis, Local,
By Magdalena Dubois, Centro de Medios Libres, CML, Mexico City - vientos.info/cml
Translated and edited by Calamity Barucha, CML
What the government and the mass media say about the struggle in Oaxaca and what people know to be true.
First lie. In an interview with the EFE agency, President Fox declared that the conflict in Oaxaca is a serious problem but that it doesn’t suggest instability of the country of Mexico becuase it is a problem with a local character. This is not true. The mobilizations that have occured in the last few days in Mexico and the rest of the world demonstrate that now it is not only a problem of the state of Oaxaca.
Yesterday their were spontaneous highway blockades in the following states:
Yucatan, Queretaro, Veracruz, Chihuahua, Chiapas, State of Mexico....
Second lie. In the same interview, Fox defended the actions of the ¨forces of order¨, and ensured that ¨It was not a armed intervention, also it was announced, because there has to be order and law within the reclaiming of the city.¨
It is not true. The police forces that occupy the city of Oaxaca launch projectiles of tear gas directed at the bodies of the protesters (Jorje Alberto Lopez died because of the impact of of a tear gas canister that was aimed at his chest). They also have heavy weaponry (such as AK-47, R15 and small arms) and nightsticks.
Third lie. At 9:30 today, november 2nd, the commanding general of the Preventive Federal Police (PFP), Ardelio Vargas, highlighted that the intention of the police operative was not to enter the University of Oaxaca and that in the case of an arrest or detention, the person would be immediately let go. Not true. Reports from the University Radio speak of the PFP entering the university since 8 in the morning.
At 8:08 there was a report that the PFP were shooting in the air, towards the radio (the chots could be heard over the radio). Moreover, at least twenty people have been detained in the morning, and they have not been let go. At 1 in the afternoon, when various commercial media were speaking of the entrance of the PFP into the university, Ardelio Vargas insisted the contrary. They also spoke of the entrance of six tanks shooting water with identifying ink that cannot be washed off, and two helicopters flew low overhead, one of them launching tear gas.
Fourth lie. The media speaks of the retreat of the tanks, which implies the retreat of the PFP. Its not true. The tanks are not retreating, they only move back to refill water deposits in order to continue repressing people who are defending the radio) though one tank was reported to have been burned).
Fifth lie. The APPO movment is a associated with guerillas (the EPR, the Popular Revolutionary Army). This is not true. The EPR is an armed resistence and the Oaxacan people have been civil and peaceful.
Sixth lie. Fox denied that the police forces were resposible for the deaths of the of the resisters in Oaxaca. he affirmed that there were some human rights violations, and that the government would act immediately to resolve these violations. But this is not true. The two suspected responsible parties in the death of Indymedia videographer Bradley Will, Abel Santiago Zarate (Local politician of a Oaxacan community and member of the PRI party) and Orlando Miguel Aguilar Coello (lead bodyguard for PRI party political members), were detained and presented before the judicial authorities. They were identified in photos of the shooting. However, the government and the Attorney General of Oaxaca have denied that these men were involved in the shooting against the APPO in which Brad Will died, even though there are testimonies from the neighbors declaring the contrary.
The Attorney General acquitted beforehand the suspects, with the argument that the neighbors that were witness ¨presume the innocence of the citizens in virtue that they were repelling the aggression of violent people¨
We must put the information seige to an end!
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http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/78763.html
November 04, 2006 03:01PM EST
Oaxaca Solidarity Demonstrations in the US on Saturday, November 4th
"…indymedia is on the minds and lips of PRIistas and government loyalists..."
By el enemigo común
please add more events as a comment
Foreigners, journalists threatened in Oaxaca
http://elenemigocomun.net/366
Letter in Support of the People of Oaxaca
http://friendsofbradwill.org/supportletter
Global Solidarity with Oaxaca
http://vientos.info/cml/?q=node/5842
Keywords: Analysis, Local, War & Peace, Resource Wars, Globalization, Corporations, Activism, Education, Repression,
photo caption: (October 30th, 2006 Protest at New York Mexican Consulate by fred askew)
Oaxaca Solidarity Demonstrations in the US on Saturday, November 4th
http://elenemigocomun.net/372
Austin: Solidarity encampment at Mexican Consulate (corner of Brazos & 9th)
http://austin.indymedia.org/feature/display/34291/index.php
Fredericksburg, VA: 4pm Video screening and discussion (address at link)
http://protest.net/dcimc/index.cgi?span=event&ID=733132
Los Angeles: 10am March to support the people of Oaxaca (Pico and Normandie)
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/11/186106.php
Los Angeles: 5pm Protest at Mexican Consulate (Park View & 6th St)
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/11/186106_comment.php#186360
San Diego: Solidarity Camp Continues at Mexican Consulate (1549 India St Little Italy)
http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/120487.shtml
San Jose: 6pm Oaxaca Film Series at Mi Pueblo Market (Story and King)
http://indybay.org/newsitems/2006/11/01/18325478.php
photo caption: (November 2nd, 2006: Protest at Miami Mexican Consulate by Danny Hamontree)
UPCOMING EVENTS IN SOLIDARITY WITH OAXACA
Portland on Nov. 5th: 4pm Solidarity with the Mega March in Oaxaca (Pioneer Square )
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/348672.shtml
St. Paul on Nov. 6th: 8pm Solidarity Planning at the Jack Pine (2815 E. Lake St)
http://twincities.indymedia.org/newswire/display/28732/index.php
Chicago on Nov. 8th: 7pm New Films from Oaxaca and Iraq at AAC (2418 W Bloomingdale)
http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/74681/index.php
DC on Nov. 10th: 7pm Short Film and Discussion at La Casa (3166 Mount Pleasant St, NW)
http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/136507/index.php
——————
Oaxaca solidarity:
El Enemigo Común (film and news)
http://elenemigocomun.net
email 'announcement' list
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/oaxaca
events and actions
http://elenemigocomun.net/category/solidarity
Download Article (PDF)
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Download PDF Compilation
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Add your comments
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http://detodos-paratodos.blogspot.com/2006/11/video-de-la-victoria-del-pueblo-de.html
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Video de La victoria del pueblo de Oaxaca el 2 de noviembre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf6H_sxCx3k
Mis dos videos favoritos.
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http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/11/03/mexico.unrest.ap/
POSTED: 1748 GMT (0148 HKT), November 3, 2006
Police forced to retreat from university in Oaxaca, Mexico
OAXACA, Mexico (AP) -- Protesters demanding the ouster of the Oaxaca state governor forced federal police to retreat from the gates of the state university after six hours of pitched fighting and the rector's call for an end to the government "attack."
Thursday's clash occurred at the entrance to the university, which protesters have used as their headquarters since police drove them from the city's picturesque central plaza on Sunday. Police are struggling to control other areas of the city.
The fight in Oaxaca city, seized five months ago by a coalition of striking teachers and leftist protesters, has reverberated in Mexico City, where sympathizers temporarily blocked some downtown streets and demanded police withdraw from Oaxaca.
In Oaxaca City, about 200 police wearing body armor and carrying riot shields advanced to the university gates and fought the protesters for more than six hours before retreating. Protestors claimed victory and pledged to re-establish barricades that had been dismantled by police in previous days.
Under Mexican law, the university rector must give the police permission to enter. Rector Francisco Martinez, speaking on the university radio station controlled by the protesters, called the operation an "attack" and demanded police withdraw.
Federal police said they simply intended to "restore order and peace" on the streets and did not plan to storm the school.
Previous negotiations between protesters and the interior department broke down, and on Thursday protest spokesman Florentino Lopez demanded direct talks with President Vicente Fox.
A free medical clinic near the university reported more than 20 protesters had been treated for bruises, cuts and injuries related to tear gas. Lopez claimed the number of injured was much higher.
Ten officers received various gas-fire burns and bruises, federal police said.
Photographer David Jaramillo of the Mexican daily El Universal was hit in the arm by a large bottle rocket loaded with nails, and was hospitalized in stable condition, the statement said. Another two photographers suffered minor injuries after being hit by stones or nails packed in the rockets, which are about an inch in diameter and six inches long.
The university radio station demanded the release of at least six demonstrators they said had been arrested.
The university is a stronghold of the movement to oust Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz, who is accused of rigging the 2004 election to win office and organizing bands of thugs to attack anyone who publicly opposed his government. Protesters -- including trade unionists, leftists and Indian groups -- have flocked to Oaxaca since May to press their demands, taking over the center of the state capital for more than five months.
At least nine people have died in the conflict, mostly protesters shot by police or armed gangs. Among the victims was Bradley Roland Will, a 36-year-old activist-journalist from New York, who was shot in the stomach while filming a gun battle Friday.
The embassies of the U.S., Canada, Britain, France and Germany have all warned their citizens to avoid traveling to the region. The conflict has shattered tourism in the city, which is popular for its colonial architecture and ancient ruins.
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http://elenemigocomun.net/368
Posted November 3, 2006
Mal de Ojo TV / indymedia Oaxaca videos
Oaxaca Video Collective Needs Your Support.
Please support Independent Media in Oaxaca
November 3rd, 2006 - The media collective that Brad was in contact with in Oaxaca needs some support. They are the video people who compressed and uploaded Brad’s video so everyone in the world could see it. Recently they have been releasing daily video from Oaxaca.
They urgently need support for the work they are doing. Their hard-drives are full and being used to edit and perform (other) translations of brad’s footage. They need space to continue the important work they are doing. read more at NYC-IMC and contact justin@riseup.net
OAXACA: Consecuencias del ataque armado a maestros en San Bartolo Coyotepec
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/541.shtml
Infamia contra Bradley ataque armado en Santa Lucia del Camino Oaxaca
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/542.shtml
“Infamy in Oaxaca ” - Brad Will video with English subtitles
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/543.shtml
OAXACA: Testimonios desoues de la Muerte de Brad en Calcanto, Oaxaca
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/545.shtml
Pueblo de Oaxaca expresa rechazo a las Fuerzas Federales
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/546.shtml
Emisarios de ulises. represión del 29 de octubre en Oaxaca
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/548.shtml
OAXACA: Espera y coraje en las barricadas de bienvenida a la policía federal
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/549.shtml
BRADLEY: In Memoriam
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/551.shtml
sources: http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/78751.html
http://video.indymedia.org
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=av8hea32uPEg&refer=news
Revolt in Oaxaca May Force Calderon to Wage an Income-Gap Fight
By Patrick Harrington
Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's next president, Felipe Calderon, will inherit an old battle over wealth and poverty that may force him to spend more on the country's southern poor than he had anticipated.
A five-month revolt by thousands of teachers and free-trade opponents in Oaxaca state is a replay of conflicts between the central government and the poor that have erupted several times since the 1980s. The protesters' demands range from the resignation of the state governor and imposition of a socialist system to better pay for farmers.
President Vicente Fox sent more than 4,500 federal police into Oaxaca City Oct. 29 to restore order. The rebellion will ensure that Calderon, who takes office Dec. 1, spends more money on narrowing the income gap between Mexico's North and South, said Jorge Chabat, a political science professor at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching in Mexico City.
``The challenge for Calderon is not just in Oaxaca but in all of Mexico's southern states, where there is very little distribution of wealth and inequality is much greater than in the North,'' Chabat said. ``The federal government is going to have to intervene if they don't want to see movements like the one in Oaxaca in several states.''
Mexico's South, where most of the country's indigenous population scratches out a living by farming, has fallen behind the more industrial North, which has prospered because of free- trade accords and its proximity to the U.S., said Juan Lindau, a political scientist at Colorado College in Colorado Springs.
Poorest States
Mexico's three poorest states -- Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guerrero -- are in the South. Incomes in the three states are about half the Mexican average, according to a 2003 World Bank report. Oaxaca has 3.4 percent of Mexico's population and 1.4 percent of gross domestic product, according to government figures.
The revolt, which broke out in May and closed schools and businesses, has further damaged the local economy by discouraging tourists from visiting beaches and ancient ruins.
Businesses and hotels in Oaxaca City, tucked in the mountains about 468 kilometers (290 miles) south of Mexico City, lost about $371 million in revenue from May through mid-October, said Eduardo Garcia Moreno, president of the state chamber of commerce. Hotel occupancy is less than 20 percent, and more than 200 businesses near the city's center -- many of them covered in graffiti -- have closed, he said.
``We are very demoralized,'' Garcia Moreno said.
The social unrest dates back to the 1850s, when federal troops loyal to Governor Benito Juarez burned the city of Juchitan and killed the leader of a miners' revolt.
Marxist Guerillas
In 1983, President Miguel de la Madrid dispatched the army to Juchitan to remove a socialist mayor elected in 1981. The action sparked violent clashes with supporters of the mayor's student-farmer party.
In 1996, as many as 80 members of a Marxist guerilla group, the Popular Revolutionary Army, attacked government offices in the Oaxaca beach resort of Huatulco, killing about 10 people. President Ernesto Zedillo increased military patrols and boosted anti-poverty spending.
The government is incapable of handling today's revolt, said John Womack, a Latin America history and economics professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
``They've all got a big mess on their hands and they don't even know how to describe it, let alone fix it,'' Womack said.
Teachers' Strike
After Calderon won the presidency by the narrowest margin in history on the strength of support from the North, he vowed to make fighting poverty his top priority. On Oct. 17, Agustin Carstens, head of Calderon's economic transition team, vowed to reduce poverty by attracting investment rather than through spending or cash handouts.
What began as a teachers' strike for higher pay evolved into a broader social movement on June 14, said Flavio Sosa, 41, a leader of the umbrella group known as the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, or APPO.
When word spread that police were moving in to remove teachers from Oaxaca's city center, townspeople and members of an array of social groups rushed to support them, Sosa said.
After the alliance expelled the police, members blocked access to the main square by moving buses into the street and setting them on fire. Later, protesters lit tires and trash and put up barricades of sandbags, sheet metal and barbed wire.
Protesters built a tent city in Oaxaca and camped in front of the Senate building in Mexico City. When Fox sent in federal police, protest leaders opted to pull back to regroup elsewhere.
Sosa said APPO wants to draw attention to the state's extreme poverty and force the state governor, Ulises Ruiz, to leave office. On Nov. 1, Ruiz rejected a resolution passed by Congress calling for him to resign.
APPO is prepared to govern Oaxaca by itself should the federal government fail to resolve the conflict, Sosa said.
``If we put that plan in motion, no one is going to be able to stop it,'' said Sosa. ``If we form our own popular government, it will be irreversible.''
To contact the reporters on this story: Patrick Harrington in Mexico City at pharrington8@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: November 3, 2006 01:02 EST
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http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=06/11/02/1450255
Thursday, November 2nd, 2006
Suspects in Murder of Indymedia Journalist Brad Will On Loose in Oaxaca
Press reports out of Mexico indicate the gunmen suspected of murdering New York journalist Brad Will are missing and not in police custody. We speak with independent journalist John Gibler in Oaxaca. [includes rush transcript]
Will died on Friday after being shot by paramilitaries in Oaxaca. The 36-year-old Indymedia journalist had his videocamera in his hand. Photos taken at the time of the shooting show the armed men who carried out the attack. They have been identified as local police officers and government officials. Initially a local mayor said five men had been detained. But the Mexican papers Milenio and Noticias de Oaxaca are now reporting that no arrests have been made.
John Gibler joins us on the phone from Oaxaca. He is an independent journalist and a human rights fellow with Global Exchange.
Brad Will’s body is on route to his family in Wisconsin. There will be a memorial for in New York City at St. Mark’s Church, between 1:00pm and 5:00 pm on November 11th.
AMY GOODMAN: John Gibler is on the line with us from Oaxaca, an independent journalist and Human Rights Fellow with Global Exchange. Welcome to Democracy Now!, John.
JOHN GIBLER: Thank you. Good morning.
AMY GOODMAN: What is the latest?
JOHN GIBLER: The latest news on the killers is indeed that they are missing. As a result of a Milenio investigation, we were unable to locate their whereabouts anywhere in the city of Oaxaca. I went yesterday to the scene of the shootings and interviewed several people there. They said that they were still in town and were actually at a house just four blocks away from where the shootings occurred, but they wouldn’t take me there, but for very obvious reasons, fear for their safety. I interviewed several people on the scene who were witness to the attacks and went against what the local chair of the city council had said, that the gunmen acted on their own and in self-defense. The governor of the state, Ulises Ruiz, has said that the men had been arrested, but that has now been proven to be false.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, what are the local mayors saying? It was mayors who had announced that they had been arrested.
JOHN GIBLER: Exactly. Manuel Feria, who’s the chair of the city council in Santa Lucia, where the shootings occurred, he says that the APPO had initiated the attacks, the members of the Oaxaca People’s Assembly shooting at these police officers and trying to violently break into a property where they were located, which has been -- people I have interviewed on the scene, everyone, everyone has gone against that, saying that the gunmen had come through, tried to break through a barricade and gotten out of a pickup truck and opened fire, first at the barricade, and that the gunfire had then spread to several locations in surrounding blocks. It’s also important to remember that there were several shootouts simultaneously that day in different parts of the city.
AMY GOODMAN: John Gibler, this situation right now in Oaxaca, Brad Will, the New York Indymedia journalist, is not the only person who died this weekend. In fact, on Friday night, weren't there three others, Mexicans, who died? And then, when the federal police moved in in force on Sunday, also there were casualties.
JOHN GIBLER: Absolutely. And one of the most, I think, kind of powerful, symbolically powerful actions of the Oaxaca People’s Assembly and their movement has been to take up the traditional Day of the Dead ceremonies here in Mexico and use them as a form of protest. They called two days ago for people to build Day of the Dead altars in honor of the people who have been killed throughout the five months of conflict in different barricades across the city, reinforcing the symbolic power of their barricades and the maintenance of the barricades, the way of defying the federal police intervention, and saying that the protesters still have control of the city. Even though they can't build their traditional sand sculptures in the zocalos they’ve done every year for decades, if not longer, they have been building the altars throughout the city. And it’s definitely important to mention that one of the most frequently honored people at these altars across Oaxaca City, and especially in Santa Lucia, is Brad Will.
AMY GOODMAN: And what do you expect is going to take place right now, now that the president of Mexico has moved in the federal police?
JOHN GIBLER: They’re really at a deadlock, because the protesters are not backing down, but to many people’s surprise, neither are they confronting the police. They are maintaining a strategy of nonviolence. They have called people to lift barricades without resistance when the police came in or come in. Such was the case yesterday with two police incursions against barricades. But they’re not going away. They’re holding marches daily, organizing barricades and taking, for example, the traditional ceremonies of Day of the Dead and incorporating them into their protest, which puts the federal government in an incredibly binding position to either crack down with violence against the protesters or to force the exit or the ouster of Ulises Ruiz.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much, John Gibler, for joining us, speaking to us from Oaxaca, an independent journalist there. Brad's body is on its way to his family in Wisconsin. There will be a memorial service for Brad in New York City at St. Mark's Church between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m. on November 11th.
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http://www.workers.org/2006/world/oaxaca-1109/
Published Nov 1, 2006 10:22 PM
OAXACA, MEXICO: Struggle grows to oust governor
People’s power resists massive police assault
By Bob McCubbin
Oct. 31—What is most striking in the unfolding confrontation in the Mexican state of Oaxaca is the tremendous courage being shown by the Oaxacan people in the face of brutal repression ordered by the Mexican government.
For over five months now, 70,000 Oaxacan teachers have been on strike and the people of the state, in solidarity with the teachers, have been demanding the resignation of corrupt Oaxacan Gov. Ulises Ruiz.
Last May, in the face of government rejection of their demands and threats by the governor to use violence against them, the teachers found it necessary to escalate their tactics with road blockades, the occupation of the central plaza in the city of Oaxaca, and demonstrations, including huge marches of 80,000 and later 120,000, mobilizations which included workers, students and Indigenous people.
The government’s response to the strong support for the teachers by the people of Oaxaca was to use tear gas, arrests and killings to try to force them back to work. In the middle of June, with growing recognition that the government was not really interested in negotiations, the teachers and supporting mass organizations formed the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO). This representative body has since functioned more and more as an alternative to the corrupt, repressive state and local governments. It has constantly grown in authority as the people’s answer to Ruiz’s refusal to resign and to the federal government’s refusal to disempower his discredited government.
In August the people’s movement took control of several radio and television stations and 20 official government vehicles. They also occupied the state government palace. At the same time, paramilitary goons, now proven by video footage to be affiliated with Ruiz and his rich cronies, increased their attacks against the people’s movement. Repressive forces sent in by the federal government began their ominous infiltrating and reconnoitering, including periodic overflights of the city of Oaxaca by military planes and helicopters.
Before the government assault began on Oct. 28, paramilitary forces directed by local leaders of Ruiz’s party, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), had killed at least 15 people. New reports say at least three more people were killed.
Mexican federal police and soldiers, along with their armored vehicles and other equipment, began massing outside the city of Oaxaca several weeks ago. Then, on Oct. 27, Ruiz’s paramilitaries killed three people: a Oaxacan teacher named Emilio Alonso Fabián, a protester named Esteban Zurita López, and an Independent Media Center reporter from the U.S. named William Bradley Roland (Brad Will). The government used this murderous assault as an excuse to begin its attack on Oaxaca.
On Oct. 28, Mexican president Vicente Fox ordered thousands of federal police, military police and soldiers, including some disguised as police, into the capital city. Using water cannons, tear gas and clubs against the city’s occupants and bulldozers to push aside the many barricades that barred passage to the city’s center, the repressive forces eventually managed to seize the central plaza. They have not, however, been able to stop the protests demanding they leave Oaxaca and take Ruiz with them.
On Monday morning, Oct. 30, Flavio Sosa, a leader of APPO, accused the government’s forces of breaking into many buildings during their attack, torturing captured members of APPO, killing at least three people and arresting at least 60 others. He added: “This city is standing up. The Oaxacan people are resisting. Thousands of supporters are approaching the city, and today there are strong mobilizations to demand that the federal police leave Oaxaca.” (La Jornada online)
The same day, La Jornada columnist Gustavo Esteva told Pacifica radio’s Amy Goodman: “Yes, the police is occupying these critical strategic points, but the people are surrounding them. They are not in control of the city; the people are still in control of the city.”
Goodman also reported the words of an unidentified protester: “We’re just people, the people fighting for our rights. We don’t want to live like this anymore. We don’t want to live in a constant state of repression, of blackmail, of murder and shabby deals.” (Democracy Now, Oct. 30)
Indeed, as this is written, protests in many cities of the Mexican Republic and in many other countries are being reported. In the U.S., supporters of the Oaxacan teachers have already gathered at Mexican consulates in several cities to voice their condemnation of the attack on Oaxaca and their outrage at the murder of Brad Will. Leaders of teachers’ unions in at least six Mexican states and the Federal District that encompasses Mexico City, in total representing 400,000 teachers, have announced a strike to protest the government attack. (La Jornada, Oct. 30)
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http://www.vidaenelvalle.com/news/english/story/12961340p-13614540c.html
Published Wednesday, November 1st, 2006
Officials blamed for unsolved border murders
By Luz Peña / Vida en el Valle
Email= lpena@vidaenelvalle.com
FRESNO — Although Verónica Leyva is short in stature and her voice is soft, her message is strong.
Last Wednesday Leyva spoke before more than 200 students at California State University Fresno. Her hope is to attract attention to the 450 women who have been murdered in towns in the state of Chihuahua and in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
"The U.S. government is careful about who comes into their country. Why can't they do the same with their countrymen who travel to Mexico? The Mexican government needs to change the way they think about women," urged Leyva. "The government needs to punish government and police corruption, not only in the case of these murdered women but in every aspect as a whole."
Federal and state authorities have investigated the cases of these murdered women to no avail.
Amnesty International USA has criticized the investigation by the Procuraduría General de la República (Mexico's Attorney General office/PGR). As it seems that the PGR has scaled down the crimes against women and leaves the impression that those who criticize their actions have "a different perception of reality," states Amnesty International.
At 14, Leyva started working at a factory and stayed there for ten years. She said women earned $6 per day and with that they could buy a couple of pounds of beef.
Leyva stated that during her time as a factory worker, she was fired once for being pregnant and by having participated in a protest in her hometown demanding water and electricity in their homes.
"Life is difficult for many of the female factory workers," said Leyva. "They don't have rights or respect at work."
In 2000 Leyva decided to become an activist for women's rights. She participated in protests and marches demanding that the Mexican government do something about the murdered women. Although there have been some small victories, there is still a lot of work to be done.
"There used to be a law that stated it was a worse crime to steal a cow than to sexually abuse a woman," said Leyva. "Fortunately we changed that law and others along that vein."
Leyva said her two daughters — 6 and 10 years of age — give her the strength she needs to keep on with the fight.
"I see them and hope that one day they'll be able to live in equality and not in danger," she states. "Women over there need to be on alert and take self defense courses."
Yazmín Maldonado, a 20-year-old student, said she was born in Mexico and likes to be abreast of everything that is going on there.
"I attended the lecture to learn and see what I can do," explained Maldonado. "I'm part of the Trabajadores de la Raza organization. We do social work and this will be our new cause."
Leyva's visit was part of the Justice for Women on the Border/Stop the Femicide! tour and was sponsored by the Mexican Solidarity Network (MSN). Leyva and MSN representative Rachel Mehl will be traveling throughout California through October 31st.
"I came to see what's happening in other cities," said student Erika Luna, 20. "It's sad to see that women are still being discriminated against for being women."
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http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4575
COMMUNITIES WITHOUT BORDERS
Images and Voices from the World of Migration
David Bacon; Carlos Muñoz Jr. (Foreword); Douglas Harper (Foreword)
$29.95t paper
2006, 248 pages, 8 1/2 x 11, 149 duotones
ISBN: 978-0-8014-7307-4 Quantity
$59.95s cloth
2006, 248 pages, 8 1/2 x 11, 149 duotones
ISBN: 978-0-8014-4499-9 Quantity
“When we finally arrived at my brother's house in the United States, I thought about how far I was from home in Mexico. I looked back, saw the sun setting, and thought about my father and what he might be doing. I thought, 'Why did I come so far, and how am I going to return?' Before I left my father asked me why I wanted to leave. He said he thought we would never see each other again. My brother told him not to worry and that he would return me in a year. . . . He was right, because we never did.”-Irma Luna recalls her experience of migration, from Communities without Borders
In his stunning work of photojournalism and oral history, David Bacon documents the new reality of migrant experience: the creation of transnational communities. Today's indigenous migrants don't simply move from one point to another but create new communities all along the northern road from Guatemala through Mexico into the United States, connected by common culture and history. Drawing on his experience as a photographer and a journalist and also as a former labor organizer, Bacon portrays the lives of the people who migrate between Guatemala and Mexico and the United States. He takes us inside these communities and illuminates the ties that bind them together, the influence of their working conditions on their families and health, and their struggle for better lives.
Bacon portrays in photographs and their own words Mixtec and Triqui migrants in Oaxaca, Baja California, and California; Guatemalan migrants in Huehuetenango and Nebraska; miners and indigenous communities in Sonora and Arizona; and veterans of the bracero program of the 1940s and 1950s. Bacon's interviews with this first wave of guest workers are especially relevant in light of the current political focus on guest-worker programs as a model for reforming immigration, an approach with which Bacon strongly disagrees.
Throughout Communities without Borders, Bacon emphasizes the social movements migrants organize to improve their own working conditions and the well-being of their enclaves. U.S. border policy treats undocumented immigrants as an aggregation of individuals, ignoring the social pressures that force whole communities to move and the networks of families and hometowns that sustain them on their journeys. Communities without Borders makes an urgent appeal for understanding the human reality that should inform our national debate over immigration.
Reviews
“David Bacon is a nonfiction Steinbeck, the foremost documentarist of the great human drama of the borderlands.”—Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums
“Communities without Borders provides powerful images and stories of the immigrant experience in Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States. This is a timely work that contributes to our understanding of the impact of globalization, the human dimension of migration, and the poignant struggles of working people. It is an important book for labor and community leaders, for scholars and students, and for all who care about social justice.”—Kent Wong, UCLA
“David Bacon demonstrates remarkable breadth, insight, and creativity through his diverse documentary photography, oral history, and writing. The story he tells of migration communities—and the stories he lets those communities tell through their own eloquent words, on their own terms—is one of universal importance grounded in the specifics of a range of experiences. This book stands as a model for careful and responsible documentary work and provides much-needed depth and nuance to one of the central issues of our time.”—Tom Rankin, Director, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
About the Author
David Bacon is a photojournalist based in Berkeley, California. He is the author of The Children of NAFTA. Carlos Muñoz Jr. is Professor Emeritus of Chicano Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Douglas Harper, founding editor of the journal Visual Sociology, has published several visual ethnographies, most recently Changing Works: Visions of a Lost Agriculture.
Subject Areas
Art, Architecture & Photography
Race and Ethnicity Studies
American Studies
Cornell University Press 512 East State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 607-277-2338 (phone) 607-277-2374 (fax)
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Aztlannet_News/message/25995
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Mexico: The last moments of Bradley Roland Will + Video Link
Message #25995 of 25995
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2006/10/30/mexico-the-last-moments-of-bradley-roland-will/
Monday, October 30th, 2006 @ 21:07 EST
Mexico: The last moments of Bradley Roland Will
Middle East & North Africa, Breaking News, Iraq, Americas, Mexico, U.S.A., Weblog, Freedom of Speech, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous, Protest, War & Conflict, Politics, Human Rights Video
Journalism seems like a precarious profession to practise in Mexico. It¡¯s ranked by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) as one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist.
The latest tragic example of this came on Friday 27th October, in the southern state of Oaxaca, with the shooting of Brad Will. Brad was in Oaxaca as a journalist for New York City Indymedia, trying to get stories out about the protests in Oaxaca (for up-to-date accounts and context of the crisis in Oaxaca, read my GV colleague David Sasaki¡¯s latest post). While filming skirmishes between paramilitaries and protestors in Santa Lucia on Friday afternoon, Brad was shot in the abdomen and neck, and died from his injuries, prompting the CPJ to call on the government to investigate Will¡¯s death. Now Indymedia has released the tape that was in Brad¡¯s video camera when he was shot.
It’s a sixteen-minute video with English subtitles, and beware, the last minute (from 15¡ä30) is very difficult to watch. Click the picture below to launch the Quicktime video (there’s a YouTube version without subtitles here).
There’s more footage at Mexican opposition blog Hoy PG, which points to a piece of unidentified news footage of Brad Will shortly after he was shot - not for the faint-hearted.
It’s a moot point whether these are human rights videos per se, but Brad’s tape in particular ends so shockingly, and depicts with such brutal suddenness the risks run by those determined to bring human rights stories to light, that it demands to be seen. But as one of the blogs David Sasaki quotes had it, there’s a balance to be struck between outrage at the killing of Brad Will, and at the mounting number of local deaths and injuries.
Part of the reason that Brad was in Oaxaca was because there has been scant international attention paid to the growing crisis there. But while cases like Brad’s - involving attacks on journalists and human rights activists from information-rich societies - gain huge amounts of traction in global media, in this case bringing Oaxaca to the top of the news agenda, the far greater number of local journalists and human rights activists affected in similar ways rarely receive the same level of coverage.
Think back to Alive In Baghdad, which brought us the Iraqi Torture story a few weeks back, and which finds that its correspondents can receive harassment and intimidation, if not worse. One correspondent, Marwan, was recently kidnapped by a militia group, possibly the Mahdi Army. Iraq is an extreme example, but it¡¯s by no means the only example.
At the end of the information chain, all over the world, there are people working to bring to light human rights abuses, oppression, torture, genocide. They are often working under difficult, extreme conditions, whether alone or in a group, undercover or in public, and often without a safety net. They might be journalists, human rights activists, lawyers, doctors, mothers. They often live in fear of repercussions, for themselves, or their families. Most of the time, it¡¯s these people - the locals - who are threatened, attacked and imprisoned, rather than foreign correspondents or international human rights workers. Brad Will was working with these people to tell their stories, and suffered a tragically similar fate.
Anyone already doing or supporting this kind of work should take note, and prepare accordingly. The WITNESS manual Video For Change has a chapter on safety and security (PDF, 1.28 MB), an essential read for anyone going into similar situations. The Rory Peck Trust, mentioned in the chapter, offers support to ¡°the families of freelance newsgatherers killed whilst on assignment [and] to freelancers who are unable to continue their work due to severe injury, disablement or imprisonment¡±, and works in Mexico, as well as South Asia and the Middle East. Feel free to add other useful resources via the comments box.
As for Oaxaca, if you¡¯re interested in the background on the protests, in addition to David Sasaki’s latest post, you could do worse than read previous updates:
David Sasaki on the original teachers¡¯ protest in June 2006 | Liza Sabater shows 8 videos from the June protests | October 10th: APPO says ¡°Stay away from Oaxaca¡± | October 12th: More updates from Oaxaca-based bloggers | October 19th: More death in Oaxaca | October 27th: APPO locks down the city
Sameer Padania
Video= Mexican government killed american journalist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o22L-xEVRqY
Added October 29, 2006
From demobserver06
Provided By:
Hoy PG - Contra la ignorancia: informaci¨®n
http://hoypg.blogspot.com
More Links=
Report from Oaxaca: Federal Police Do Not Have Control of the City: Monday, October 30th, 2006
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/30/1535230
http://aztlannet-news-blog.blogspot.com/2006/10/report-from-oaxaca-federal-police-do.html
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