Justice for Our Sister Marcella Sali Grace!

Please read and sign the below call to action.

This event is beyond tragic.

Oaxaca de Juarez, Oaxaca.Thursday, September 25

Justice for our sister Marcella Sali Grace!

Brother and sisters,

Our hearts are full of sadness and rage because our sister Sali was brutally raped and murdered 20 minutes from San Jose del Pacifico and up to this moment the Oaxacan Attorney General's Office, as is its custom, is not doing anything regarding the fact that there exist witnesses who have information to identify those responsible.

Marcella Sali Grace was born in the United States, with a big heart in solidarity with just causes. She had many friends because she was always inclined to help, using her artistic talents to paint a banner or a wall or doing Arabic dance to raise funds for the struggle, or putting on punk shows, or giving self-defense courses for women because she knew very well how the men accosted them. This was one of her struggles, that women were free and respected. Sali was so involved in the struggle that she was an international accompanier of brothers and sisters who felt harassed by the bad government of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.

Unfortunately, on September 24, a woman's body was found with the physical characteristics of Sali, in a deserted cabin twenty minutes from the village of San Jose del Pacifico and at the moment when a village member went to feed some dogs around that area, he was struck by a fetid odor coming from this cabin and notified the municipal authorities of the village, who proceeded to remove the body which was already in a state of decay, and after these events, they did not give any more information to the people in the village.

Yesterday, companera Julieta Cruz (who knew Sali was headed for San Jose del Pacifico) was informed that a young, foreign woman was at in the Miahuatlan amphitheatre, where she went, and where she recognized the body of Sali because of the tattoos she had, as her face was unrecognizable. Julieta thinks it is because of burns, but it doesn't explain why the rest of her body has less visible damage. When we asked for the case number we were denied as well from seeing the results of the autopsy, as they argued with us that because we weren't relatives they couldn't give us any information.

Due to her solidarity work with the popular struggle of the people of Oaxaca, in other struggles in the world and against the racism on Mexico's border with the U.S., on different occasions and to different people, Sali mentioned that recently in Oaxaca she had suffered political persecution and surveillance. This makes us think that her cowardly murder is related to the widespread repression against the social movement and directed particularly at international observers. Because of this, we don't dismiss that the intellectual authors are the same who ordered the repression against the people of Oaxaca in their struggle for justice and freedom.

In the face of these bloody events, and for the brutal cruelty used against companera Sali, we don't disregard that this could be a clear message directed at all the people of Oaxaca, as well as the companeros in solidarity from different parts of the world; we say this based on the recent national and international news which says that "APPO members were the ones who killed U.S. journalist Bradley Roland Will" and as there is no justice in Oaxaca, we worry that the distortion of information could interfere in procuring true justice for our companera and the clear bureaucratic slowness with which the involved authorities are already treating this investigation.
In the face of these lamentable events, WE DEMAND:

..The immediate speeding up of the investigations.

The immediate clarification of the facts.

Punishment for the intellectual and material murderers.

Justice for our sister Marcella Sali Grace!

Enough is enough with of the murders, violence and hatred against women who fight for justice!

We ask you to sign on (at the email indicated) to this demand for justice and to become a part of the urgent activities to demand the clarification of these cowardly acts.

mailto: rebeldiasentrelazadas@yahoo.com

Information: (01 951) 5178190 CIPO....

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 25..

9:00 am Presence at the U.S.Consulate in Oaxaca(Santo Domingo Plaza, Col.Centro, Oaxaca)

12:00 noon Rally at the State Attorney General's Office: To demand the case is brought to Oaxaca and to speed up the bureaucratic procedures for the administration of justice.(Domicilio conocido, San Antonio de la Cal, Col. Experimental).

Signed:
Encuentro de Mujeres Oaxaquenas "Compartiendo Voces de Esperanza"
Colectivo Mujer Nueva
Consejo Indigena Popular de Oaxaca Ricardo Flores Magon
Voces Oaxaquenas Construyendo Autonomia y Libertad
Colectivo Tod@s Somos Pres@s
Encuentro de Jovenes en el Movimiento Social Oaxaqueno

(...)

Original translation taken from Myspace Bulletin Post by: "Stop being a Slacktavist"
Date: Sep 27, 2008 1:04 PM