* OAXACA UPDATE I: FEDERAL FORCES PULL OUT
* OAXACA UPDATE II: RUIZ ADMITS ARBITRARY ARRESTS
* FARMERS FIGHT GM FOODS
* 300 MAZAHUA INDIANS SEIZE WATER TREATMENT PLANT
* BORDER NEWS: GOVERNMENT DECRIES ABUSES OF MIGRANT WORKERS
* GOVERNMENT SENDS 6,500 TROOPS INTO MICHOACAN
Committee of Indigenous Solidarity (CIS). CIS is a Washington, D.C.
based activist group committed to the ongoing struggles of Indigenous
peoples in the Americas. CIS is actively supporting the struggles
of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico while simultaneously combating
related structures of oppression within our own communities.
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"Para Todos, Todo; Para Nosotros Nada"
OAXACA UPDATE I: FEDERAL FORCES PULL OUT
Federal riot police ended their weeks-long occupation of the center
of the Mexican tourist city Oaxaca on Saturday (12/16), having
weakened a protest movement trying to oust a state governor. Violent
clashes between the masked activists and riot police, and a string of
shootings of protesters, made Oaxaca one of new President Felipe
Calderon's top problems. But the arrest of several high profile
protest leaders has weakened the movement against the governor, and
the frequency and size of demonstrations has fallen.
The federal police boarded trucks and rolled out of the city before
dawn, handing over security to state police. The federal agents were
headed for a nearby air base where they would remain until further
notice, a state spokeswoman said. "It's no longer necessary that they
guard the streets; we are doing it now," said state government
spokeswoman Luz Divina Zarate.
The federal force stormed the graceful mountain-ringed city in
October, fighting fierce battles with leftist activists who had built
barricades and closed government buildings in a bid to topple state
Gov. Ulises Ruiz. Police have snatched hundreds of protesters from
the streets in recent weeks, leading to accusations by rights groups
of illegal arrests and torture. The protesters accuse Ruiz, who they
say is corrupt and stole an election, of being behind at least a
dozen deaths, mainly of activists, since the conflict began in June.
Gunmen identified by a national newspaper as local government
officials were filmed shooting at activists at the height of the
conflict.
Oaxaca is one of Mexico's cultural gems but is surrounded by rural
areas of extreme poverty that years of corrupt government has failed
to significantly reduce. Since taking office on December 1, Calderon
has taken a tough line on Mexico's security problems, sending
thousands of troops to his home state of Michoacan, where a turf war
between drug cartels has led to soaring violence. Hundreds of federal
police left Oaxaca earlier this week to beef-up the offensive in
Michoacan.
Source: Reuters: 12/16
====
OAXACA UPDATE II: RUIZ ADMITS ARBITRARY ARRESTS
Oaxacan Gov. Ulises Ruiz, for months demanded by the populace to step
down for violent repression, recognized that some 80 percent of the
214 people arrested November 25 have no relation to the social
movement. The authorities of Oaxaca admitted that at least eight of
those people were formally sent to prison, although their names were
not in the Federal Preventive Police official report, and they were
not involved in the events.
Attorneys for the prisoners and human rights representatives declared
this is a situation of glaring violation of the right to freedom,
typifying the arbitrary arrests and irregular trials. They said there
are testimonies from every case of the terror lived by the accused
and their relatives, while only three people have been freed after
paying some $10,000 for bail.
Faced with the large number of reports of violations of individual
rights, human rights observers from Spain, France, Germany, and other
countries will pay a working visit to Oaxaca to organize a
comprehensive mission to investigate the human rights violations in
that Mexican state.
Source: Prensa Latina: 12/11
====
FARMERS FIGHT GM FOODS
Farmers from 19 Mexican states began a campaign to protect natural
corn and beans from their transgenic counterparts. The National
Farmers' Association (ANEC) says the goal is to recover arable land
now neglected or given over to a different use. Their strategy
includes assembling a network of companies that exclusively produce
beans to seek commercial and industrial alternatives.
Another goal is to start negotiations with Congress and the
Government to pass a law to protect bean and corn production, achieve
food sovereignty and defend their condition as farmers. The ninth
ANEC general assembly also discussed financing, sustainable
agricultural production and the 2007 rural budget.
There was skepticism over a proposal by Agriculture Secretary Alberto
Cardenas to discuss the agribusiness section of the North American
Free Trade Agreement. The ANC pointed out that the Mexican Commission
for Sustainable Rural Development does not represent the majority and
other groups should be included in these long-promised negotiations.
In addition, ANEC is demanding the presence of scientists and
academicians linked to the rural sector, who have evidence of the
disaster caused by the implementation of such unfair trade terms.
Huge concerns were also raised over the planned elimination of
tariffs in 2008 on corn, beans and powder milk under NAFTA.
Source: Prensa Latina: 12/15
====
300 MAZAHUA INDIANS SEIZE WATER TREATMENT PLANT
A group of about 300 Mazahua Indians briefly seized a water treatment
plant on Mexico City's western outskirts and temporarily cut off one
of the main sources of water for the metropolis of 18 million people,
the National Water Commission said. The protest was motivated by
demands for more government development aid, local media reported.
The protesters live in the watershed of the Cutzamala River in the
high, pine-covered mountains west of Mexico City. The river provides
almost one-third of the city's water. The Indians broke into the
treatment plant and closed the intake valves for about four hours,
the National Water Commission said in a press statement.
In September 2004, the same group staged a similar protest, blocking
chlorine deliveries but not stopping the water supply. They were
demanding damage payments for reservoir overflows that damaged crops,
as well as money for rural development projects and drinking water
systems for their own communities. In late 2004, the government gave
them almost $120,000 in damage payments, promised to build water
systems for them and gave them grants for thousands of Christmas tree
seedlings to plant for income.
Source: Associated Press: 12/14
====
BORDER NEWS: GOVERNMENT DECRIES ABUSES OF MIGRANT WORKERS
Mexican President Felipe Calderon acknowledged that many of the
illegal migrants from Central and South America who pass through
Mexico on their way to the United States are abused by criminals and
by authorities. Pledging to ensure that the rights of Mexicans abroad
are protected, he also acknowledged responsibility for migrants in
Mexico. "Just as we demand respect for the human rights of our
countrymen, we have the ethical and legal responsibility to respect
the human rights and the dignity of those who come from Central and
South America and who cross our southern border," Calderon said
during the presentation of human rights awards to several Mexican
activists. "Migrants from Central and South America who cross through
our national territory also suffer abuses, extortion and are victims
of crime, many times with the complicity of authorities."
The number of undocumented migrants detained in Mexico rose from
138,061 in 2002 to 240,269 in 2005. Forty-two percent were
Guatemalan, 33 percent Honduran and most of the rest Salvadoran.
Calderon also reiterated a promise to work toward strengthening the
economy so that Mexico "is not the origin of migration, but soon the
destination for investment." The president, who took office on Dec.
1, has promised to follow up on the promise of his predecessor,
Vicente Fox, to pursue an accord with the United States that would
allow millions of Mexicans to legally enter and work north of the
border.
Calderon, a native of central state of Michoacan, which sends a large
number of migrants to the U.S. each year, noted that "like many ... I
have cousins, uncles, in-laws who are undocumented and live in the
United States." "Never in history have walls stopped migration or the
integration of countries and regions," Calderon said.
Source: Associated Press: 12/14
====
GOVERNMENT SENDS 6,500 TROOPS INTO MICHOACAN
The Mexican government announced it was sending a force of more than
6,500 soldiers, marines and federal police to the western state of
Michoacan to crack down on a wave of execution-style killings and
beheadings that have left hundreds dead. The operation is the first
major offense against drug gangs by recently sworn-in President
Felipe Calderon, who was elected on a law-and-order platform. "We are
looking to take back the spaces that organized crime has seized,"
said Interior Secretary Francisco Ramirez Acuna, flanked by the
attorney general and heads of the army, navy and federal police. "The
battle against organized crime has just begun."
Michoacan, Calderon's home state, has had more than 500 killings this
year, about half of which investigators say are linked to a turf war
between two rival drug gangs. In apparent attempts to terrorize those
that oppose them, the gangs have carried out a wave of decapitations,
placing the severed heads on public display with threatening notes
including one that read, "See. Hear. Shut Up. If you want to stay
alive." In the most gruesome case, gunmen burst into a nightclub and
rolled five heads onto the dance floor. In another, a pair of heads
were planted in front of a car dealership in Zitacuaro, a town best
known until now as a nesting ground for monarch butterflies.
Source: Associated Press: 12/11
====
The above articles were originally published and copyrighted by the
listed sources. These articles are offered for educational purposes
which CIS maintains is 'fair use' of copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
end: Mexico Week In Review: 12.11-12.17
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