To the peoples of Oaxaca
To the peoples of México
To the peoples of the world
The voracity and greed of the rich have no limits, and the rich don’t hesitate to spill the blood of campesinos and workers in order to impose their interests. The rebellions against capitalist greed are now spreading throughout the whole world, from Egypt to Chile, and from Greece to the United States, where people are now joining forces with the long, ancestral resistance of the original peoples against colonialist capitalist invaders. Yesterday, October 28, 2011, in Oaxaca, México, the struggle against transnational wind energy companies on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec resulted in the loss of yet another life and in wounds inflicted on 20 people. In some cases, the wounds were very serious.
Yesterday, October 28, 2011 there was a confrontation on the Pan American Highway just outside the La Venta Community in Juchitán, Oaxaca, when a group of thugs and policemen commanded by the La Venta municipal agent Ventura Ordaz Santiago, tried to violently clear a roadblock set up by campesinos opposed to the wind energy project in an effort to prevent the extraction of materials from their land that would be used for the construction of more wind energy parks in the region. The comrades tried to defend themselves from this attack, and in the confusion one of the aggressors was killed and twenty campesinos opposed to the wind energy project were badly wounded. The attack occurred seven days after the campesinos opposed to the project received death threats that were documented by Amnesty International and a few hours after professor Rodrigo Flores Peñaloza, in the city of Oaxaca, publicly denounced the imminent aggression against his comrades. The Gabino Cue State Government of Oaxaca did absolutely nothing to prevent the attack despite repeated denunciations.
The local press and state government officials are now maintaining a suspicious, hermetic silence regarding the events, at the same time that gunmen on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec hunt down the campesino comrades that they hold responsible for the death of the citizen killed yesterday in a quest for vengeance.
In the face of the complicit silence of the Gabino Cue Monteagudo state government, which has already resulted in one death and could unleash even greater violence, we denounce these acts before the men and women of the world, human rights organizations, and social organizations in resistance that are struggling for a better world.
Moreover, we denounce the fact that these acts on the Isthmus are part of the strategy of the Gabino Cue government to set social movements against each other, allow their conflicts to fester, and incite violence between peoples. The aim is to make the plunder of transnational corporations against the indigenous peoples of Oaxaca seem like inter-community conflicts. This has occurred in San Juan Cópala, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and is now the government strategy in San Miguel Chimalapa.
We hold these large Spanish companies directly responsible; DEMEX (RENOVALIA), GES SCADA, GAMESA, CIISA.
We also hold the individuals who headed the violent evacuation directly responsible: Pedro Santiago Rasgado, henchman of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and Ventura Ordaz Santiago, municipal agent of La Venta, Juchitán.
We hold Oaxaca state Governor Gabino Cue Monteagudo and his Secretary of the Interior Jesús Martínez Álvarez responsible for their perverse policy of setting social movements and organizations against each other and instigating fratricidal war between brothers and sisters, indigenous peoples, and poor people, while granting full guarantees and concessions to transnational corporations and rich people in general for their businesses.
We firmly demand the clarification of the events that occurred on the Pan American Highway yesterday, October 28, 2011, and express our confidence in the innocence of our campesino comrades opposed to the wind energy project.
PUNISHMENT FOR ALL GUILTY PARTIES!
NO TO THE TRANSNATIONAL WIND PROJECT!
PUNISHMENT FOR THE KILLER ULISES RUIZ ORTIZ!
JUSTICE FOR OAXACA!
Assembly of the Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus in Defense of the Land and Territory
VOCAL, Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom
Oaxaca de Magon, City of Resistance, October 29, 2011
