On October 29th, two Days after the murder of NYC Indymedia Journalist Brad Will, the Mexican Federal Prevention Police (PFP) entered Oaxaca City, Oaxaca to “restore law and order”. It took the PFP an entire month to brutally repress the social movement of the Oaxacan People’s Popular Assembly (APPO). On Novemebr 25th, 2006 the PFP claimed its victory over the social movement.
The mass media and the Oaxacan State government maintain that law and order has been restored in Oaxaca, and that the radical elements of the APPO have been dealt with. They claim that Oaxaca is back to normal, and in peace. “Paz Sin Justicia,” a 41 minute film by the Committee in Defense of the Rights of the People – CODEP, examines what this peace looks like today, and what it really means for Oaxaca to return to normal. Corruption, institutionalized repression, and economic slavery are the standard through which a weak government attempts to hold itself together.
All the while the Oaxacan People’s Popular Assembly (APPO), along with Oaxacans in general, wait for the next moment to practice what they have already begun: self-determination, autonomy, popular power, and the dignity that comes with rising up from below.
