Witness for Peace Mexico

International Protests and the Uncertain Fate of Oaxaca

The incursion of federal forces into Oaxaca has grabbed international attention, with protests all over the U.S. and Europe. The United Nations and Amnesty International have called for a full investigation of human rights violations, condemning last weekend’s violent events.

In the meantime, smoldering metal frames of burned out busses block access to Oaxaca’s central plaza, the Zócalo. Behind them a wall of Federal Preventative Police (FPP) with anti-riot shields, helmets, and Billy clubs stand guard. The social crisis they were officially trying to solve trembles on all around them. The Zócalo is the only place in the historic center of Oaxaca that the FPP control. Besides the Zócalo, the FPP controls all access in and out of the city by means of checkpoints set up to stop and search all vehicles. House searches continue to take place: yesterday they were concentrated in the neighborhood Pueblo Nuevo.

Outside police lines there exists a city in protest. After Sunday’s police incursion, the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) circled the Zócalo and re-erected many of the barricades that the federal forces destroyed. Smoldering fires continue in the middle of blocked intersections where members of the APPO vigil during the night; the streets remain littered with bags of garbage and shards of broken glass. Today APPO supporters had to retreat from their barricades to avoid confrontation with a march of 2,000 people supporting governor Ulises Ruíz Ortiz. They reestablished a large encampment in front of Oaxaca’s most famous church, Santo Domingo, only four blocks north of police lines in the Zócalo.

Miguel Ángel Vásquez, of the local Oaxacan organization EDUCA (Servicios para una Educación Alternativa), calls the current situation “unsustainable.” He says that the “federal police operation has not been a success in Oaxaca City,” but warns that it is “still continuing.”

As reported in today’s news, the Mexican Senate and House of Deputies have asked Ulises Ruíz Ortiz to resign (although they have enacted nothing legally to force him to do so). In light of this development, Vásquez says “I believe that with the growing social pressure against the military operation there is a possibility that this might calm down in the next few days with the resignation of governor Ulises Ruíz Ortiz. Right now this is the only way to begin to solve the situation.”

A solution is greatly desired by Oaxacans who are grasping for a sense of normalcy. In the daylight, some venture outside their homes; some shops have opened; and even though city busses are not running, make-shift pick-up trucks gather passengers and run the typical bus routes. Oaxacans usually say that the nighttime October breeze is a sign that the Day of the Dead festivities will begin, but now the cool nights only bring intense rumors of paramilitary groups roaming the city, or the next FPP action—which many think will be at the campus of Oaxaca’s autonomous university, another APPO stronghold. Merchants complain that sales are down for the flowers, fruit, and mole that people traditionally offer to dead loved ones at cemeteries on November 1 and 2. The APPO plans to surround police lines with altars commemorating those from their organization that have died as a result of the conflict.

Federal Forces Take Oaxaca: 3 Protesters Dead, Many Detained and Missing

On Sunday, October 29, the much feared federal military intervention that loomed over the city for weeks as a "solution" to the conflict, began at 2:00 pm. Led by armored tanks with water cannons, 4,536 heavily armed agents of the Federal Preventative Police (FPP) entered the city in 80 buses to restore "law and order" as mandated by president Vicente Fox on Saturday. For 13 hours the troops battled sympathizers of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO by their initials in Spanish), who put up barricades all over the city and vowed to peacefully resist the military incursion. When they used their bodies to stop the tanks and police caravans they were blasted with water mixed with tear gas. Some resisted with rocks and Molotov cocktails. At the end of the day a teacher, a nurse and a 14 year old boy, all APPO sympathizers, were dead, and 10 including two from the FPP were injured. Police also detained 50 people and entered and searched 50 targeted houses.

Now the historic center of Oaxaca is militarized. The plaza of the city, which only yesterday was the central base of the APPO, is now one of the principal bases of command for the FPP. Bell and Super Puma helicopters constantly fly over the city, their noise a deafening roar. FPP armored tanks and Caterpillar bulldozers push away burned out bus frames, scars of yesterday’s battle where thick black smoke from the burning buses mixed with the heavy chemical haze of tear gas. Yesterday, everybody's eyes burned all day long.

With the APPO still holding key points in the city and their possible plans to attempt to recuperate the historic center of Oaxaca, and with the state governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz still in power, this is far from over.

Mexican President Vicente Fox authorized the incursion of federal forces on Saturday after the violent events of Friday, October 27, when Oaxaca State police and alleged hired assassins, in five simultaneous actions at different points in the city, attacked APPO barricades. Four people, including a U.S. citizen were killed; 23 were injured; and 20 teachers were detained and are currently in a prison in Miahuatlán. Brad Will, a reporter from Indymedia in the U.S., was shot through the chest and killed while filming an assault on a barricade. Hundreds of Oaxacans attended Brad Will's wake in the historic center of the city in a show of respect for his solidarity with their struggle. Witness for Peace mourns the deaths of all people that have been killed in this conflict.

Tony Garza, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, after sending his deepest sympathies to Brad Will's family, reiterated the travel advisory issued by the State Department in late August about the danger of traveling to the state of Oaxaca. He said that "Mr. Will’s senseless death, of course, underscores the critical need for a return to lawfulness and order in Oaxaca." This came one day after the APPO and Section-22 Teacher's Union representatives held a demonstration in front of the embassy to protest what they called "U.S. internal manipulation of Mexico" and the economic situation that forces "Mexicans [to] have to migrate to the US to look for work." APPO member Soledad Ortiz, said there are a lot of U.S. companies in Oaxaca and "they have a lot to do with what is happening here."

In the last three days 7 people have been killed, close to 70 detained, countless injured and many family members are still searching for and unable to find loved ones who have disappeared. With more battles heating up for today and tonight, for the next week, for who knows how long now, the result will undoubtedly be more injured, more detained, more dead. We ask: is this how problems whose root causes are an authoritarian and unequal distribution of resources, products of a neoliberal economic system promoted by the U.S. government, are to be solved? Is the answer to the problem, under the rubric of “restoring law and order,” a full federal force using expensive dangerous technology against people who are armed with at most rocks and sticks?

U.S. Independent Media Journalist and Photographer Bradley Will, seen here in Oaxaca, who was killed on Friday, October 27, at an APPO barricade by gunmen alleged to be plainclothes municipal authorities (Image courtesy of Indymedia New York; click image to enlarge).

Tensions Up as Mexican Senate Rejects Removal of Oaxaca Governor

The tension here continues to rise as temporary optimism about negotiations between the federal government and movement leaders faded after last Friday’s senate decision rejecting the movement’s demand for the removal of Oaxaca’s governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. Adding to an already very complex dynamic, the Section 22 of the SNTE (teacher’s union) has recently shown signs of internal conflict over the return to classes for the start of the 2006-07 school year, which was being used by mainstream media sources to suggest a breakdown of the movement. In response, however, representatives from the Section 22 and APPO held a press conference this past weekend denying any weakening of the movement and strongly affirming their unity in the struggle to the end (“¡Hasta la victoria siempre!”). A consultation with the union’s base is currently in process to decide whether or not teachers will return to classes, and though pressures to do so are still mounting, reports suggest that this is unlikely and that the conflict is far from its end. Talk of the latest consultation has created the sense that the situation is once again reaching a turning point, a feeling that now seems to characterize the events of each passing week. Symptoms of years of structural violence due in part to US economic policy continue to emerge while opportunities for resolution of this conflict pass, and the threat of military intervention looms ever larger over this city.

Psychological tensions within the city are evident on a daily basis as each morning’s news brings stories of violent confrontations and acts of intimidation, mostly occurring from nightfall into the early hours of the morning. During the day the city functions on an impressively “normal” level, though each night unidentified blasts mix with sounds of firecrackers from cultural celebrations during this time of the year to create an uneasiness that often leaves us wondering what the headlines will be the next day. To date in the month of October there have been three reported assassinations of APPO members (two since our previous update) and several instances of the use of intimidation tactics. Two of the latter were high-profile, including rounds being fired at the house of well-known Oaxacan artist and dialogue proponent Francisco Toledo, and heavily armed judicial and municipal police surrounding a building in which the “Dialogue for Oaxaca” was taking place. Additional reports show militarization of a small town in the Villa Alta region of the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, a municipality showing strong support for the movement. Equally worrisome are the frequent statements made by state and national government officials reiterating their intentions to “resolve” the situation by December 1^st, if needed through the use of military force.

In response, the APPO has continued to take large steps toward further nationalizing the movement, including maintaining their encampment in front of the senate building in Mexico City and conducting a mega march to bring together APPO-like groups from states around the republic with a goal of eventual representation from each state in the country. The movement has continued to discuss strategies for uniting with other sectors of the country’s working class in the creation of a strong front of resistance against the country’s neoliberal current (most prominently against president-elect Felipe Calderón’s incoming government), whose effects—perpetuated by NAFTA and US trade policy—are at the very root of this struggle.

Since Our Oaxaca Action Alert (First Update on Oaxaca)

First a very warm thank you to all those who replied and put pressure on the US embassy and State Department! We would like to think that this pressure helped considerably, as there were signs of preliminary agreements between the Federal Government, the Popular Assemby of the People of Oaxaca (APPO, by their initials in Spanish), and the National Teacher’s Union Section 22 on Monday October 9. The Federal Government was willing to concede a number of the movement’s demands: the cancellation of over 300 arrest warrants issued against the APPO since last June, the Army and Navy would go back to doing only their “normal activities” (implying there would be no military intervention), the release of all prisoners involved in the conflict, and the boost of teacher’s salaries, amongst other things. In return the APPO and Teacher’s Union Section 22 said they would give up their encampments throughout the city, give back the radio and TV station, stop the barricades and other road blockades, and the teachers would go back to class on Monday October 16. These were preliminary agreements, however they were not official nor signed, and were pending a consultation process within the base of the APPO and the Teacher’s Union, planned to start Wednesday October 11. Precariously absent from the preliminary accords was the movements’ “nonnegotiable demand” of the forced resignation of the governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, whose fate lies in the Mexico’s Federal Senate. On Monday the 9th 5,000 Oaxacans arrived to Mexico City, after marching for 18 days from Oaxaca City, to install an indefinite encampment in front of the senate to pressure for the governor’s removal.

On Wednesday October 11, whatever brief tension that was lifted from the optimism of the possible preliminary accords, came crashing back down onto the city. On this day a special federal commission from the senate was supposed to arrive (they didn’t end up coming until Thursday)  to investigate if the public powers were indeed functioning in the state of Oaxaca. If they were to determine that the state was not being governed, the Senate could appoint a provisional governor – who would call for new elections. In response, the current governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz ordered that all public agencies and offices, which had been closed for months, be re-opened and operating. The APPO quickly responded by first sequestering 10 city busses which they used to blockade key intersections in the city, then sending out several “moving brigades” to symbolically close down all public offices. There was a confrontation when a moving brigade tried to close down the Ministry of Public Protection. Several men, allegedly police in civilian clothing, emerged from the office and began to shoot at the brigade. Four people were injured, two shot in the leg. The immediate response of the Teacher’s Union Section 22 and the APPO was to stop the consultation process (to approve the preliminary accords), and wait for the Senate’s decision about the fate of the governor. On Friday, the special Senate commission went back to Mexico City to work on their report, which could be finished early this week, for a vote on Tuesday or Thursday. Meanwhile the Secretary of the Interior, Carlos Abascal, who heads the Federal government’s delicate negotiation process with the APPO and the teachers, said on Friday that if the Section 22’s teachers do not go back to class on Monday, other alternatives to resolve the crisis will have to be considered, including the entrance of “federal forces” into the city of Oaxaca to “restore order.”

At 2:30 am Saturday morning APPO sympathizer Alejandro Garcia Hernandez was killed after being shot in the head by a soldier in civilian clothes at a barricade in the city. The shooter’s wallet dropped when pulling out his pistol and his identification, left at the scene, revealed that he was a lieutenant in the Mexican army, 22 year old Johnathan Rios Vasquez, and helped lead to his apprehension by local police later that morning. Barricades made of sand bags, barbed wire, wood slats, used furniture, and often large bonfires go up every night throughout Oaxaca City blocking key intersections and streets as the movement’s way to protect encampments blocking the city’s central plaza, key public offices, and taken-over radio and TV stations. The soldier opened fire after the people at the barricade would not let him pass in his truck, allegedly yelling “Long Live Ulises!”- in reference to support of the governor. Hernandez is the sixth APPO sympathizer to be killed since August. The APPO immediately asked the Federal Government for an explanation, and this latest incident has many thinking that the negotiation process is at its lowest point in two months.

As the situation in Oaxaca continues on its rollercoaster ride of ups and downs one thing that remains constant is the 76 percent of the state’s population that suffers from poverty or extreme poverty. As Miguel Angel Vasquez from the Oaxacan non-governmental organization EDUCA puts it “the teacher’s strike began the current conflict as we see it, but the genesis of this conflict comes from an economic structural crisis,” a crisis that produces “150,000 migrants per year.” Vasquez says that “if migration is the individual response to this economic crisis, the conflict in Oaxaca is an example of a collective response.”  We ask readers to continue to pressure the US Embassy and State Department – asking them if the NAFTA economic model was supposed to create prosperity, democracy, and stability, then what is happening in Oaxaca? We also urge people to remain extremely alert to a still on-going threat of what undoubtedly would be a bloody military intervention.