Arrest the Killers
When Brad was killed, the people photographed firing guns at the
protesters were police, police commanders, and operatives and
bodyguards for the PRI party, including Pedro Carmona, Abel Santiago
Zarate aka “El Chino,” Juan Carlo Soriano aka “El Chapulin,” Commander
Manuel Aguilar Coello, and Juan Sumano. They are directly linked to
the corrupt Governor Ulises Ruiz, and we demand their arrest.

Drop False Charges, Release Political Prisoners
Since Brad’s death, Ulises Ruiz’ government has been attempting to
bring charges for Brad’s killing against Brad’s friends, APPO people,
witnesses, and those who risked their lives trying to get Brad to a
hospital. We join the National Commission on Human Rights, and
Reporters Without Borders in finding these attempts to be an absurd
and outrageous attempt to divert attention from the real killers. We
demand an end to this smokescreen and the punishment of innocent
people including Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno, Hugo Colmenares Leyva,
and Octavio Perez Perez.

Justice for Brad, Freedom for Oaxaca
Brad is only one of dozens of activists, reporters, civilians, and
unarmed people killed by the State response to the Oaxacan movement
for justice and freedom. Friends of Brad Will not only demands
justice for them, but demands what they demand: the end of corrupt
brutal rule by Ulises Ruiz.

No to Femicide
We join in solidarity with the friends and family of Marcella Sali
Grace Eiler, an international solidarity activist working with CIPO,
Colectivo Mujer Nueva and witnesses of Brad’s death, who was found
brutally raped and murdered September 25th in San Jose del Pacifico
in the state of Oaxaca. Her death is part of continued widespread violence
against women in Mexico, and a symptom of the failure of the Mexican
government to address it. As the Calderon government disregards human
rights and attempts to impose military control of everyday life, we
demand justice for all the victims of the femicide and an immediate
end to impunity for the rapes and murders of women throughout Mexico

No to Plan Mexico
A year almost to the day after Brad was murdered, the Bush
Administration announced the Merida Initiative (aka Plan Mexico),
providing at least $1.6 billion in US armament, training, and
resources to the same police and military forces that killed Brad and
many other activists and journalists in Mexico and Central America
under the pretense of stopping narco-trafficking. Already the weapons
have been used in massacres and repression of activists in Morelos and
Chiapas. Along with the AFL-CIO, the United Steelworkers, Tikkun,
Wespac, Witness for Peace, Cispes, and Jews for Racial and Economic
Justice, The Friends of Brad Will demand and end to the Merida
Initiative.

——————–

Nuestras Demandas para el Segundo Aniversario

de la Muerte de Brad

Detenga los Asesinos

Cuando se mataron a Brad, las personas que aparecen en las fotos, disparando pistolas contra las manifestantes, fueron la policía, los comandantes de la policía, y los operativos y las guardaespaldas del partido PRI, como Pedro Carmona, Able Santiago Zarate “El Chino,” Juan Carlo Soriano “El Chapulin,” Commander Manuel Aguilar Coello, y Juan Sumano. Son ellos quien tienen relaciones directos con el corrupto gobernador Ulises Ruiz. Exigimos su detención!

Retire los Cargos Falsos, Libere a los Prisioneros Políticos

Desde la muerte de Brad, el gobierno de Ulises Ruiz ha sido intentando traer cargas para el asesinato de Brad contra los amigos de Brad, la gente de la APPO, los testigos, y aquellos que se arriesgaron su vida tratando de llevarle a Brad al hospital. Unimos con la Comisión Nacional para Derechos Humanos y Periodistas Sin Fronteras en nuestro encuentro de que este intento es una manera absolutamente absurda e intolerable de desviar la atención lejos de los asesinatos verdaderos. Demandamos que se acabe con esta curtina de humo y el castigo de gente inocente como Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno, Hugo Colmenares Leyva, y Octavio Perez Perez.

Justicia para Brad, Liberación para Oaxaca

Brad es sólo uno de docenas de activistas, periodistas, civiles, y personas desarmadas asesinado por la respuesta del Estado contra el movimiento Oaxacana para justicia y liberación. Los amigos de BradWill no sólo demandan justicia para ellos, sino también las mismas demandas que demandan ellos: el fin del gobierno corrupto y cruel de Ulises Ruiz.

No al Neo-Liberalismo y Femicidio

Unimos en solidaridad con los amigos y la familia de Marcella Sali Grace Eiler, una activista de solidaridad international trabajando con CIPO, Colectivo de Mujer Nueva, y con los testigos de la muerte de Brad quien se descubrió violada brutalmente y asesinado el dia 26 de septiembre 2008 en San Jose del Pacífico en el estado de Oaxaca. Su muerte es una parte de la escalación de la violencia contra las mujeres en una época de acuerdos comericales y guerras de drogas. Demandamos que se acabe con el Tratado de Libre Comercio de Norteamérica (TLCAN), el Tratado de Libre Comercio de Centroamérica-República Dominicana-EEUU, y el Plan Puebla Panama (alias el Proyecto Mesoamérica), y los sistemas culturales y políticas que han permitido las violaciones y los asesinatos contra las mujeres.

No al Plan México

Casi un año al día después de que se mataron a Brad, la administración de Bush anunció la Iniciativa Merida alias Plan México, porporcionando por lo menos 1.6 billiones de dólares para el armamento de EEUU, la formación, y los recursos para la misma policía y fuerza militar que se mataron a Brad y otros activistas y periodistas en México y Centroamérica debajo de la pretensión de parar narco-traficantes. Las armas ya han sido usado en matanzas y represiones contra activistas en Morelos y Chiapas. Junto con el AFL-CIO, los Trabajadores Siderúrgico de los EEUU, Tikkun, Wespac, Testigos para Paz, Cispes, Judios para Justicia Económica y Racial, Los Amigos de Brad Will demandan que se acabe con la Iniciativa Merida.

CALL U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton at her office:
(212) 688-6262 (see talking points/demands, below)
Harry Bubbins (hunger-striker) reports that she was in the office this a.m.
You don’t have to live in NY to make this crucial phone call!

Stop by the vigil at 780 Third Ave (between 48th & 49th St.) Manhattan

Friends of Brad Will are in their 2nd day of a 4-day round-the-clock vigil and Hunger Strike at Sen. Hillary Clinton’s office (no food, no drink, no water)

Remembering Brad Will (1970-2006)
New York journalist assassinated in Oaxaca, Mexico
by right-wing paramilitary death squads

Friends of Brad Will, including human rights advocates Robert Jereski and Harry Bubbins, will be engaging in a 4-day vigil and fast as part of an international “Week of Action and Remembrance” of our friend Brad Will, to call attention to the Mexican government’s cover-up of the U.S. journalist’s murder and in opposition to Senator Hillary Clinton’s support for U.S. funding for Mexico’s military operations under Plan Mexico (the “Merida Initiative”).

The vigil will last for 4 days and nights outside Senator Clinton’s office. It is calling on Sen. Clinton to order protection for witnesses who saw Mexican government paramilitaries shooting at demonstrators, including Brad Will, in Oaxaca, and who are currently being threatened by Mexican Authorities. (more…)

By John Gibler

On October 27, 2006, Brad Will stood on Juarez Avenue in the municipality of Santa Lucia del Camino, Oaxaca, Mexico. He was filming a violent clash between armed, civilian-clad municipal police and officials and members of the Oaxaca Peoples’ Popular Assembly, or APPO

Brad, a longtime New York City activist and independent journalist, traveled to Oaxaca in early October 2006 to report on the protest movement led by the state teachers union that sought to oust governor Ulises Ruiz of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which had ruled Oaxaca with an iron fist for almost 80 years.

Brad stood amid the APPO protesters and other journalists, filming down the length of Juarez Avenue where armed officials were firing at the protesters. Brad was shot and fell to the ground, his camera still running, having recorded the sound of the shot that hit him. Brad was shot from straight on, just below the chest, and yet his killer does not appear in the camera frame at the moment of the gunshot. Brad died on the way to the hospital. He had been shot twice.

Two years later, on October 16, 2008, the Mexican federal government arrested two members of the APPO, charging Juan Manuel Martinez as the gunman and Octavio Perez with helping to cover up Brad’s murder (Perez was later released on bail). Federal police were still looking for other suspected accomplices, all members of the APPO who had tried to carry Brad to safety and save his life.

The arrests came after a series of human rights reports criticized the government’s investigation for failing to follow leads pointing to local officials who were widely photographed by the press shooting at APPO protesters on October 27, 2006.

“It is such a coverup,” said Kathy Will, Brad’s mother, in a telephone interview on learning of the arrests. “It is an insult to us and to all of the groups that have tried to help with a meaningful investigation.”

more

Denouncing the appointments of members of El Yunque, an ultra-right anti-semitic movement, to the highest levels of the Mexican government, Friends of Brad Will has told key Democratic Party leaders to reject the Bush military aid package called the Merida Initiative. Friends of Brad Will is a non-government organization advocating for accountability for the murder of U.S. journalist Brad Will, who was killed by Mexican government paramilitaries in October, 2006.
(more…)

also see video here:

and spanish-language article here.

US Parents Seek Answers in Mexico Death

By JESSICA BERNSTEIN-WAX –

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The parents of an American journalist slain in
southern Mexico said Wednesday they were unsatisfied with the progress
authorities have made in the case and will have outside investigators
review video footage and forensic evidence.

Bradley Roland Will, a 36-year-old journalist-activist from New York,
was killed in October 2006 while filming unrest in Oaxaca state, where
protesters had been fighting for months to oust Gov. Ulises Ruiz for
alleged electoral fraud. Will recorded video and wrote dispatches for
indymedia.org in the month before his death.

“It’s been a year-and-a-half now,” said father Hardy Will, who
traveled to Mexico City and Oaxaca with Bradley’s mother Kathy Will to
meet with authorities and human rights groups. “We would expect some
progress and concrete results.”

[Note: Links to other articles at the bottom of the next page] (more…)

Great news! Friends of Brad Will met with Senator Schumer yesterday in Brooklyn to urge his support of accountability for the murder of U.S. journalist Brad Will and others murdered in Mexico by Mexican government paramilitaries and bring the Merida Initiative to his attention and urge he speak out against it.

The Merida Initiative known as Plan Mexico is a $1.4 billion military package proposed by President Bush for Mexico. It is being debated in Congress now (even though they haven’t even seen the full ’security’ initiative.

Please read through the brief note (w/talking points on Plan Mexico) below and give Senator Schumer a call or email urging an end to impunity for Brad Will’s murder and the murder of innocent Mexicans in Atenco, Oaxaca and elsewhere in Mexico by Mexican security forces and that he oppose Plan Mexico. (more…)

Stop “Plan Mexico”! Public Service Announcement, 3.5 minutes
Now available on YouTube!

Click here.

Please watch, forward, embed and make use of this resource.

Video text:

Plan Mexico was hatched by Presidents Bush and Calderon without any consultation from the US or Mexican congresses. (more…)

//////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Team Spider Television will be airing:
“BRAD: One More Night at the Barricades” in 2 parts….
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////////

<< >>>…. WEDNESDAY- FEB 13th___ 10:30 -11pm PM____ CH 57.

<< >>>…. WEDNESDAY- FEB 20th___ 10:30 - 11pm Pm___ CH 57.

This a great opportunity to reach a different audience, email anyone you know, their parents, their rich uncle… who live in the borough of manhattan, and tell them to set their DVR’s ( if they have money for cable, they probably have DVR ;-)

it is also viewable as a live stream/ same time, thru mnn.org

sample letter (to be adapted for use to reach out to the late Representatives Tom Lantos’s offices, Speaker Pelosi, Nydia Velazquez etc.):

Representative José E. Serrano:
788 Southern Blvd.
Bronx, New York 10455
(718) 620-0084

Dear Representative José E. Serrano:

We are approaching you to lead on the following important matter
becuase of your past leadership in the Hispanic Caucus and because U.S.
journalist Brad Will was a volunteer in your district. This letter is
to draw your attention to the recently proposed Bush/Calderon “Merida
Initiative”, more commonly known as “Plan Mexico”. I am writing to
request your strong leadership to oppose this measure.
(more…)

Friends of Murdered US Journalist in DC Advocate for Investigation and End to Impunity

The Friends of Brad Will attended the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere Oversight Hearing Overview of U.S. Policy Toward Latin America on March 1st to press for the appropriate investigation of the murder of US journalist Brad Will in Oaxaca, Mexico in October of 2006. The Friends of Brad Will is a national network working with the Will family for justice and accountability in his murder, and for an end to the impunity of human rights
violations in Oaxaca, Mexico.
(more…)