El Enemigo Común

February 18, 2010 – From Casa Chapulin – Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno, husband and father of three children, was released from prison for wrongfully being accused for the killing of Indymedia journalist Bradley Ronald Will. Will was shot on October 27, 2006 by paramilitary troops under the orders of governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz while he was recording a mobilization in Santa Lucia del Camino, Oaxaca during the 2006 APPO movement.

Amidst the clouds and rainy day, the Martinez Moreno family was greeted by community members, teachers, friends, and media. Family and friends marched from the prison to the Zocalo. Juan Manuel was imprisoned for approximately 16 months without any solid evidence or witnesses proving him guilty.

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Four Foreigners Detained without Justification in Oaxaca, Mexico on Thursday January 28th 2010

Oaxaca — January 30, 2010

Press Release

On Thursday January 28, at around 9 p.m. Andrea Caraballo, Guadalupe Rodriguez Lopez, James Wells and Jennifer Lawhorne were eating ice cream in the zocalo of Oaxaca. At that time, one of us recognized the face of the governor of Oaxaca who was about nine feet away from us. As a friend of Brad Will, a U.S. journalist who was killed in Oaxaca in 2006, one of us took advantage of the governor’s presence to ask him about the case of Mr. Will, which to this day remains unresolved. We didn’t receive a response from the governor who continued walking and we continued strolling in the zocalo with our ice creams. Five minutes later, between six and eight police agents, some in official uniform and others dressed in plainclothes, surrounded us, demanding to see our identifications and made us walk with them to a municipal police truck. While the police forced us to get into the back of the truck, we asked them why they were taking us away and to where they were going to take us. The police refused to give us any information. We were actually very afraid and worried for our safety.

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by Jenka, KBOO.fm

A Mexican judge has once again called for the release of human rights activist Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno. Moreno was charged with the murder of Indymedia journalist Brad Will in 2006, despite the fact that there was no evidence against him. On December 31, 2009, a Mexican judge recognized this lack of evidence, and ordered Moreno’s release within fifteen days.

Supporters of Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno say that he was framed for the murder because he is an activist who has pointed out corruption in the Mexican government. Several off-duty Mexican police who were caught on film shooting at Brad Will have not been charged with any crime. This past October, another judge ordered Moreno to be released due to lack of evidence, but the Mexican Attorney General’s office appealed the order. Moreno has been in jail for over a year, despite the fact that over one hundred eyewitnesses say that he was not present at the scene of Brad Will’s murder.

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Let each man and each woman who loves freedom spread it far and wide with determination and stubbornness, undeterred by mockery, heedless of danger, unmindful of the consequences;
let’s get to work comrades, and tomorrow our ideal of freedom will be a reality.
Ricardo Flores Magón

Comrades and friends:

Warm, combative greetings to all of you from the crew here at the Oaxacan Autonomous Solidarity House of Self-Sustaining Work (CASOTA), a space we’ve constructed as part of this widespread Oaxacan movement. For the last year, it’s been in motion thanks to the collective effort of people who believe in building a new society, another world, as our Zapatista brothers and sisters say, or strengthening our communality, as we say in Oaxaca. Little by little, with a lot of work, new initiatives have been launched that we believe will point the way towards that other relationship which has sustained the resistance and liberation of our peoples for centuries. And so we’re happy to make you part of this first anniversary that we’re celebrating as a space, and we’re sending you an INVITATION to the event that we’re organizing for Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 5 o’clock in the afternoon.

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Paramilitary repression and police brutality continue unabated on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border three years after the assassinations of Lorenzo Sampablo Cervantes in Oaxaca, Mexico and Fong Lee in Minneapolis, MN

By Steven Renderos & Sylvia González
November 1, 2009

Two different people – different stories, different places, – separated by nearly 2,000 miles, were connected three years ago when their lives were cut short by gunfire. Fong Lee and Lorenzo Sampablo Cervantes suffered a death inflicted by the gunshots of police and paramilitary officials. For Cervantes, it was one gunshot wound to the chest; for Lee, three gunshot wounds in his back, and five more to the front. Cervantes died seeking justice during the popular movement in 2006 in Oaxaca, Mexico, while Fong Lee died as a result of deeply rooted racism and police brutality in communities of color across the United States.

The stories of Lorenzo and Fong tell the tales of paramilitary repression during the popular movement of 2006 in Oaxaca, Mexico and police brutality and racism in the Hmong community in Minneapolis- and how they play out in different sociopolitical contexts. While their lives ended tragically, their stories continue as their family and community members are fighting back, building unity, and defining “justice” and “dignity” on their own terms and based on their own experiences.

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