In Port au Prince, Haitians Are Helping Each Other with Their Hands and the Few Tools They Can Find
By Ansel Herz
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI, JANUARY 14, 2010: The roof of Haiti’s national penitentiary is missing. The four walls of the prison rise up and break off, leaving only the empty sky overhead.
The gate to the jail in downtown Port-Au-Prince is wide open; the prisoners and police are all gone. Bystanders walk freely in and out, stepping over the still-hot smoldering remains of the facility’s ceiling. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday afternoon broke it to pieces.
“I don’t know if he’s alive or not alive,” said Margaret Barnett, whose son was a prisoner. “My house is crushed down. I’m just out in the street looking for family members.”
“Where is the help?” she asked. The former government employee spits the question again and again, hands on her hips. “Where is the help? Is the UN really here? Does America really help Haiti?”
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On October 27th, activists in several cities around the US and the Americas gathered in front of Mexican consulates to call for justice in the case of slain indymedia journalist Brad Will, who was killed in Oaxaca, Mexico on October 27, 2006, while filming the people’s uprising. The protests marked the anniversary of Brad’s death, as well as the recent arrests of Brad’s friends and comrades for his murder, in direct contradiction to forensic evidence, video evidence, eyewitness reports and the Mexican government’s own Human Rights Commission report.
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National call to action for the weeks around October 27 – the anniversary of the invasion of Oaxaca
October 23rd, 2008 – Solidarity Without Borders – NYC writes: In recent days, there has been an escalation of state repression in Oaxaca specifically directed at our companer@s in the APPO (Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca/Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca), CIPO-RFM (Consejo Indigena de Popular de Oaxaca-Ricardo Flores Magon/Council of Indigenous Peoples of Oaxaca) and other organizations of resistance.
Last Thursday, the Mexican state arrested Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno, an activist with the APPO, outrageously charging him as the author of Brad Will’s murder, and fellow activist Octavio Perez Perez for covering up the crime. There is video evidence that agents of the state, affiliated with Governor Ruiz Ortiz, are responsible for this killing and the killing of many other activists in the fall of 2006 during the popular uprising.
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By John Gibler from the October 20th, 2008 issue of The Indypendent
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.
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Press Release, 10/20/08
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Melissa Mundt melissajmundt(at)gmail.com
Rachel Wallis, rachel.a.wallis(at)gmail.com
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Monday, Oct. 20: Days after Mexican authorities arrested two activists for the murder of independent journalist Brad Will, Mexican photographer and witness to the murder, Gustavo Vilchis, denounces the arrests as politically motivated. Vilchis, along with human rights organizations and members of the media, argue that plainclothes police officers and a local elected official are responsible for Will’s murder.
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