Days of action Demanding Punishment for the Killers of Lorenzo Sampablo Cervantes

Actions in Oaxaca on August 15 and 22, three years after the death of Lorenzo Sampablo

To the heroic people of Oaxaca
To the peoples of the world
To the news media

Three years ago, during the massacre perpetrated against the people of Oaxaca by the federal and state governments, the most basic human rights and individual guarantees listed in our Constitution were trampled upon, including the free expression of ideas, the right to organize and mobilize, and the right to a person’s physical integrity; all of these were conceived as legal instruments to attain freedom and social justice in our country.

With this in mind and in view of recent events, we condemn and repudiate the barefaced cynicism of the magistrates of the federal Supreme Court, who prepared and issued a report exonerating the federal, state and municipal governments of repressive acts against the Oaxacan social movement, starting with the struggle that began in 2006-2007 and is still going on. It is important to emphasize that the counterinsurgency plan implemented during the social conflict by the psychopath Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and the band of criminals now ruling the state, left a trail of repression, terrorism, death and desolation. The operation known as the “Convoy of Death” was carried out by several different police forces, paramilitaries, gangs of thugs and hired assassins. These crimes of State have gone unpunished in spite of convincing evidence including photographs, videos and documented testimony presented in the local, national and international press regarding modes of operation and specific offenses committed against the people of Oaxaca through strikes against the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO). Investigations were conducted by the Oaxaca State Attorney General’s Office and the federal Attorney General’s Office that should have lead to the identification and punishment of masterminds and perpetrators, but this information has been filed away in the State Attorney General’s Office in complicity with Ulises Ruiz and in compliance with his instructions.

In just a few days we will commemorate one of the murders committed within this scenario of terror. On the night of August 22, the architect Lorenzo Sampablo Cervantes, was peacefully watching over the radio station known as “La Ley” which had been taken over and was being operated by the movement. This crime is remembered as one of the most brutal and atrocious of all. Photos were published in far parts of the world, clear evidence of the participation of the police and paramilitaries, who fired right and left from their patrol cars against the defenseless population and against APPO members and sympathizers who were outside the radio station in Colonia Reforma at the time. The operation aimed at “clearing the thoroughfares” was ordered by Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and directly involved Lizbeth Caña Cadeza, the ex State Attorney General; Lino Celaya Luria, Ex Minister of Citizen Protection; and higher-ups in the police forces such as Manuel Moreno Rivas and Aristeo López Martínez. Many people were injured, including some reporters from the national news media.

All of these murders have been denounced and typified as crimes against humanity by the federal Attorney General’s Office, yet at every step of the way, this Office has done everything possible to protect and clear state government officials from all responsibility as masterminds or perpetrators of these crimes. Its actions show that the Attorney General’s Office has refused to act on behalf of the people, who are clearly the injured parties.

Now a new attempt against the people of Oaxaca has been orchestrated through the federal Supreme Court. Ministers leaked information regarding a decision that once again favors the killer URO after a supposed investigation carried out by a Commission appointed by the Court itself. Without the least regard for ethics, Commission members brazenly argue that the intervention of state and federal police forces was legal and necessary in order to reestablish a state of law violated by the people who had mobilized. One wonders about claims that justice has been done when everyone killed, taken prisoner, disappeared and tortured were on the side of the defenseless people, and when no official has dared to so much as question the proceedings of an arrogant, corrupt, inefficient and criminal government like Ulises Ruiz’s, much the less bring charges against him for his evident responsibility in escalating the social conflict. But now, once again, the Supreme Court reveals its true vocation ––that of issuing decisions against the people and in favor of the powerful, in just the same way that it has resolved other offenses committed by federal and state powers-that-be against peoples’ struggles, as in the case of San Salvador Atenco, that of the journalist Lidia Cacho, who had pressed pederasty charges against powerful people, and now the case of the Oaxacan social movement. It comes as no surprise to us that the Magistrates are running roughshod over peoples’ dignity and social consciousness once more.

We strongly reject the way in which the Supreme Court plans to resolve Oaxaca’s case and, in view of this situation, call on the people of Oaxaca to be on the alert, to refuse to allow impunity to prevail, and to participate in the following activities organized by the APPO and the family members of fallen comrades.

August 15 ”Fundraising in support of the Actions demanding Justice for Lorenzo Sampablo”
Zocalo of the City of Resistance, Oaxaca
10:00 am
Denunciation table. Exhibits.