Citywide Oaxaca Solidarity Mtg: Thursday Dec 14
COME TO THE FIRST NYC MEETING IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF OAXACA
Thursday, December 14, 7:30pm
Hunter College
Room 436 North Building - 4th floor
enter 69th street between Lexington & Park Avenues
A city-wide meeting for individuals and organizations in NYC to learn about the situation and begin to make plans to coordinate a solidarity campaign in support of the peoples of Oaxaca.
The Mexican Federal government has chosen the path of violence and repression instead of negotiation to resolve the conflict in Oaxaca, Mexico. This conflict began on June 14th when Oaxaca’s governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz sent in state police to break a peaceful teachers’ strike that was camped out in the center of Oaxaca City. Gov. Ruiz had already alarmed international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, for atrocities committed before the June 14. The actions on June 14th further ignited people’s anger throughout the State who responded, by forming the People’s Popular Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) who reinforced the teachers’ encampment in Oaxaca City. The single demand of the APPO has been the resignation of Gov. Ruiz.
Since June 14th, the violence against the teachers and the APPO by paramilitary forces and police aligned with Gov. Ruiz has escalated and on October 27th, independent journalist, Brad Will, was brutally murdered at the hands of plainclothes police officers and local government officials
in Santa Lucia del Camino, Oaxaca.
Two days later, on October 29th, the Mexican Federal government dispatched several thousand Federal Preventative Police (PFP) troops to remove civilian protesters supporting the APPO from their encampments throughout the city. There were the recorded deaths of at least three civilians as a direct result of the excessive force that the PFP used to dislodge the protesters, despite official comments from the State and Federal governments to the contrary.
On November 2nd, the PFP tried to enter the Benito Juarez Autonomous University in an attempt to shut down the university radio station critical of Governor Ruiz. Mexican law prohibits the incursion of law enforcement onto autonomous universities, unless requested by the university rector. The rector of the Benito Juarez categorically rejected the presence of the PFP in Oaxaca.
Oaxaca City is now living under a state of siege. Since June 14th, at least 20 people have been killed, over 500 people have been imprisoned, more then 100 people have been disappeared and hundreds wounded. Pick-up trucks carrying PFP, State and Municipal Police are now patrolling the
city, randomly detaining people without arrest warrants. Most of the people detained are unable to contact family members and are being moved to prisons outside of the state. Teachers are being pulled from their classrooms. Many of the people detained have been tortured. An illegal
radio station, Radio Ciudadana, affiliated with Gov. Ruiz is broadcasting the names of APPO members, Human Rights workers and others, giving their addresses and offering a reward for their assassination.
The only way to resolve this conflict is through dignified, peaceful negotiation, and respect for human rights.
Please come to this meeting where we will plan how we can be supportive of the people in Oaxaca, Mexico.
- posted Sun., Dec 10, 2006 at 12:19am
- filed in Actions, News and Articles, Press Releases
- 1 Comment
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December 11th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
Here’s some info about a benefit and efforts happening in Durham, NC
[please read on even if you can’t attend the benefit. important
information about how to help below]
Celebrate the Feast Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe!
Support the Peoples’ Struggle in Oaxaca!
December 12th : Event to benefit CACTUS!!!!!
Chaz’s Bull City Records
1916 Perry Street (next to Cosmic Cantina)
film screening/teach-in @ 8pm
benefit show @ 9pm
Bands:
Scene of the Crime Rovers-Durham marching band
The Drowsies-Raleigh punk
Something’s Wrong-Asheville punk
Feast Upon Thy Brother-Durham metal
oaxacan style tamales and horchata! cheap and super delicioso!
all proceeds go to benefit CACTUS!!!!!!!
CACTUS (Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos—Center for
Communal Support) is a grassroots organization based in the
La Mixteca region of Oaxaca, home to Mexico’s poorest municipalities.
CACTUS works to resist oppressive economic and political policies that
leave the people of La Mixteca impoverished and marginalized. Many of
CACTUS’s organizers do solidarity economy work, community banking and
popular education. They mostly work with women seeing as most of the
men have migrated either to the US or the agricultural fields of
Northern Mexico that 100% export to the US. But they are not
powerless! CACTUS has been participating in the assemblies of the
Asamblea Popular del Pueblo de Oaxaca, APPO (Popular Assembly of the
People of Oaxaca).
On November 25 CACTUS and other organizations from La Mixteca were
traveling to Oaxaca City to participate in the seventh mega march of
the APPO when their buses were stopped by paramilitaries. One bus was
offloaded and then set on fire. Over 20 people were arrested and are
still being detained Nayarit. CACTUS organizers have received death threats
and have been in hiding for the last two months to avoid arrest,
disappearance and assassination. Furthermore, their offices have been
broken into and vandalized. They are being treated like criminals
when all they are doing is exercising their right to live with
dignity.
Much international attention has been focused on the amazing popular
rebellion that is happening in Oaxaca City. However, llittle has been
passed onto the more rural and outlying regions of the state, even
though these activists, workers, and farmers are also facing
institutional and violent repression. Emily Posner and I will be
traveling to La Mixteca on December 15th for two weeks. Our
solidarity mission is multi-faceted. First, we will act as human
rights observers in La Mixteca. Second, we will document as much as
we can about what is happening in La Mixteca. Third, we will help set
up documentation infrastructure, so that when we leave, this region’s
residents will be able to continue documenting these turbulent times.
Finally, to we will deliver much needed supplies and money to help
CACTUS continue its imperative work. We will bring things like cell
phones and money for phone cards to improve CACTUS communication network
in case of another paramilitary attack. We will donate video and audio
recording equipment and digital cameras for CACTUS. We will supply
needed funds so that CACTUS can get their comrades out of jail and
continue to participate APPO general assemblies.
If you can’t make the show, but wish to donate a cellphone that is sim card
compatable, digital camera, audio recording equipment or video recording
equipment please send it to Tennessee Watson before December 15th. If
you are interested in donating funds to purchase any of this equipment
or to take directly to Oaxaca (so we can avoid wiring costs) please
send to Tennessee Watson. We are hoping to raise at least $1,000 to
purchase equipment and to help get CACTUS organizers and residents of
La Mixteca out of jail. Your help is greatly appreciated at this
pivotal time.
Tennessee Watson
1317 West Pettigrew
Durham, North Carolina
27705
585.739.9143
tennessee.watson@gmail.com
For folks in NYC, I will be mailing some things to Durham later this week. If you wish to donate anything to CACTUS, email me and I can send it with my package!
k.see@graffiti.net