Second Report.

The human rights convoy is about to go into the community of Agua Fria, a community belonging to the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala, and the Oaxaca State Attorney General, Maria de la Luz Candelaria Chiñas, has announced she wants to establish negotiations between the coordinator of the PRD, Alejandro Encinas Rodriguez, however the decision is not partisan.

The brigade also confirms that since yesterday the UBISORT was recruiting PRI supporters to block the entrance into Juxtlahuaca to stop the humanitarian convoy from entering. UBISORT created a paramilitary fence that does not let the 70 families living under this paramilitary siege to live in peace, until now colluding authorities have done nothing.

Given this information, the human rights convoy returns given that there are no guarantees and the statements from the state attorney general indicate that they have information that members of the UBISORT have installed blockades near San Juan Copala and that other groups affiliated with the MULTI have done the same, which in turn could “generate actions by these people that would be out of control despite the security operations by the state government”. (They recognize the power and impunity enjoyed by these groups).

In a sense the complete impunity enjoyed by these paramilitary groups in the Triqui region is confirmed, as well as that the people of the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala live in a complete state of siege, without food, services and constant harassment. And since this humanitarian caravan is for life, and the governments propose death. And because this humanitarian convoy does not want death but life, the convoy returns to Huajuapan to express, the wave of harassment they have experienced in trying to enter, a small bit compared to the harassment that permeates the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala.

We continue to monitor the situation.

Asamblea en Defensa de la Tierra y el Territorio del Istmo de Tehuantepec, Brigadas Indígenas 94, CACITA, CASOTA, Coatlicue, Colectivo Revolver, Comunidad Benito Juárez Chimalapa, Coordinadora Juvenil Libertaria, Frente Cívico Teotiteco, Yunhiz Espacio Alternativo, Radio Ricardo Flores Magón, Radio Totopo, Universidad de la Tierra, Familiares de Lorenzo Sampablo, VOCAL, Autonomía Radial, RADIO PLANTON.

–

source: http://solidaridadcopala.blogspot.com

First report.

The convoy that departed from Oaxaca from the church of Xochimico at 5am left with approximately three private vehicles, a 49 person bus, as well as with 1 truck full of basic necessities including coal, canned food, clothing, corn, beans and rice.

Having left from the Oaxaca city square where they met with a convoy coming from Mexico City, 7 passenger buses were gathered without counting private vehicles transporting basic supplies. The convoy that left Oaxaca arrived in Huajuapan at eight thirty, however they were met by state police taking photos of the buses.

1:10pm Passing by the town of Tonala, about 50 people gathered to show support.

1:22pm The convoy makes a stop in the Enchanted Lagoon to asses the situation with police continuing to film our comrades.

1:33pm There is a rumor that the PRI candidate for governor Eviel Perez Magaña, wants to head the convoy.

We make Eviel Perez Magaña liable for his irresponsibility and political proselytizing in Juxtlahuaca, seeing this as an act of provocation and harassment of the convoy.

1:36pm The convoy decides to walk given that they are being continually harassed.

2:30pm The convoy continues on its way towards Santa Rosa Caxtlahuaca since there is a UPOE and state police blockade, now traveling both in front and behind the convoy with approximately 22 trucks, 11 in front and 11 in back, with the 18 convoy vehicles in between (trucks, private vehicles and basic supplies).

Therefore the convoy calls on the state attorney general to fulfill its role and stop harassing, allow the convoy to break the paramilitary fence and to deliver humanitarian aid and basic supplies, and the gathering of personal testimonies from within the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala.

We continue to monitor the situation.

Asamblea en Defensa de la Tierra y el Territorio del Istmo de Tehuantepec, Brigadas Indígenas 94, CACITA, CASOTA, Coatlicue, Colectivo Revolver, Comunidad Benito Juárez Chimalapa, Coordinadora Juvenil Libertaria, Frente Cívico Teotiteco, Yunhiz Espacio Alternativo, Radio Ricardo Flores Magón, Radio Totopo, Universidad de la Tierra, Familiares de Lorenzo Sampablo, VOCAL, Autonomía Radial, RADIO PLANTON.

–

source: http://solidaridadcopala.blogspot.com

Despite the armed attacks on two separate aid caravans on April 27th and May 31st, the international community is determined to bring desperately needed supplies to Palestinians in Gaza city and a Triqui village, on the other side of the world, in Oaxaca, Mexico.

On April 27, the international community was stunned to learn that a paramilitary group known as UBISORT had attacked a peaceful humanitarian aid caravan en route to the indigenous Triqui village of San Juan Copala in Oaxaca.

The government of Oaxaca has since blamed the attack, which resulted in the deaths of two human rights observers, on the actual organizers of the caravan. An absurd claim to say the least.

The caravan was attempting to cross an illegal blockade that UBSIORT (an organization founded by members of Oaxaca’s ruling party, the Institutional Revolution Party, or PRI) has imposed on the the Triqui village since January 2010. The blockade has made it impossible for the villagers to leave or gain access to food, water or other basic necessities.

Since April 27, there have been two additional attacks on the Triqui village. On May 14, UBISORT kidnapped six women and five children who had made it past the blockade to the UBISORT controlled community of La Sabana, “where they were told that they would be executed if they tried to return to Copala with food and medicine”, notes a press release from Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom (VOCAL). Fortunately, the group of women and children have since been released.

The second attack occurred 6 days later, on May 20. UBISORT shot and killed Timoteo Alejandro Ramírez, leader of the Indigenous Autonomous Municipality, and his wife Cleriberta Castro.

Despite the clear and immediate danger in Oaxaca, a new caravan has been organized for the Triqui People.

Named “Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola” in honour of the two human rights observers who died on April 27, the caravan was officially announced on May 13.

The caravan, with its accompaniment of about 300 people, is already on its way to San Copala and it is expected to arrive sometime today, June 8.

With “Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola” travelling in Oaxaca, Mexico, the international community continues to cry out over the Israel government’s shameful attack on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla on May 31.

In total, nine activists were killed and nearly 700 were arrested after Israeli troops raided the convoy of six ships dubbed “the Freedom Flotilla”. The flotilla was carrying roughly 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza.

Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza since 2007, when Hamas took control of the Palestinian territory from the rival Palestinian group Fatah. The military blockade has stranded more than 1.4 million Palestinian men, women and children to utter poverty.

It’s a form of “collective punishment,” says Amnesty International. “Rather than targeting armed groups, the blockade mainly hits the most vulnerable, such as children (who make up more than half of the population in Gaza), the elderly, the sick and the Gaza Strip’s large refugee population.” The region is plagued by mass shortages and military attacks.

The Freedom Flotilla, with its 700 unarmed civilians from 40 different countries, was going to pass through the military blockade when it was headed off by Israeli forces.

According to the Flotilla’s organizers, the troops opened fire as soon they stormed the convoy. The government, on the other hand, claims that activists on the flagship attacked them first.

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world have condemned the brutal military assault; and they, along with scores of human rights groups, the United Nations and several governments are demanding a full and impartial investigation. Others are also calling for a Boycott and for Sanctions against the state of Israel.

Sadly, another Gaza-bound aid ship was seized by Israeli forces 3 days ago, on June 5. The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), which dispatched the aid ship dubbed “Rachel Corrie”, has released a statement condemning the “hijacking,” stating, “For the second time in less then a week, Israeli forces stormed and hijacked an unarmed aid ship, kidnapping its passengers and forcing the ship toward Ashdod Port in southern Israel. It is not yet known whether any of the Rachel Corrie’s passengers sustained injuries during the attack, but they are believed to be unharmed.”

The Free Gaza Movement has since announced that they will be sending a second flotilla in place of the Rachel Corrie; but it’s not expected to set out for another couple months.

–

source: http://intercontinentalcry.org

by Zapatista Support Group Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand

The Wellington Zapatista Support Group unveiled an altar opposite the Mexican Embassy at 12.30pm Tuesday 08 June to commemorate some of those murdered by paramilitaries in the San Juan Copala autonomous community in Oaxaca, Mexico in recent months, and to demand that the Mexican Government give safe passage to the international humanitarian caravan that will again attempt to break the siege and deliver essential aid to the members of the community.

The blockade of San Juan Copala and the attack on the caravan delivering aid in April which resulted in the deaths of a Mexican and a Finnish human rights defender, bear an ominous resemblance to the recent Israeli attack on international groups attempting to deliver aid to a besieged Gaza.

Condemnations of both the blockade and the attack on an aid delivery to San Juan Copala have been made by the European Parliament, Amnesty International and scores of social groups and movements, to no avail.

A large international caravan of human rights observers and organisations, journalists, solidarity activists, and aid agencies is today on its way to San Juan Copala, and will attempt to break the blockade and deliver essential food, clothing and medicines within the next 24 hours.

In addition to unveiling the altar and handing out information, the Wellington Zapatista Support Group presented a letter to the Mexican Government, care of Mexican Embassy personnel, demanding:

• the Mexican Federal and Oaxaca State Government ensure the safe passage of the humanitarian caravan delivering aid to the besieged autonomous community of San Juan Copala;
• both governments take immediate action to protect the residents of San Juan Copola, and ensure that they have access to adequate supplies of food and water; as well as all necessary health care;
• an end to the siege of the community by the UBISORT armed paramilitary group, so that residents can move freely, communicate with the outside world and receive visits from humanitarian missions without fear of attack or reprisal;
• an independent investigation into the deaths of José Celestino Hernández Cruz, Alberta Cariño, known as Beatriz or Bety, Jyri Antero Jaakkola, Alejandro Ramirez, and Cleriberta Castro, with the results made public and those responsible brought to justice;
• the federal authorities prevent human rights abuses committed by members of UBISORT against local residents, and investigate the group’s links to members of the PRI, the governing party in Oaxaca, and bring all those implicated in human rights abuses to justice.

You can download a pdf copy of the flier given out at the protest here: 8Junflierweb.pdf

Please feel free to copy and distribute this information!

source: http://floweroftheword.wordpress.com

by Emily Posner

June 7-8, 2010

Yesterday four activists delivered a letter to Jorge Sanchez Cataño, the Deputy Consul at the Mexican Consulate in Detroit, Michigan. The activists met with Mr. Sanchez to express their support of the humanitarian caravan that left the morning of June 8th from Huajuapan de León, Mexico for the San Juan Copala municipality.

The group expressed their hopes that the Mexican Government would ensure the safety of the caravan in order to avoid repetition of the violent attack on April 27th where Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola were assassinated. The four also asked that the Mexican Government immediately bring criminal charges against those responsible for the two’s murder, as well as those responsible for the murders of Timoteo Alejandro Ramírez and Cleriberta Castro.

Two of the activists are artists and organizers with the well-known Beehive Design Collective. Another has worked directly with CACTUS of Huajuapan de León and Bety Cariño.

Following the meeting, Mr. Sanchez gave permission to the group to do a small presentation about Plan Colombia in the lobby of the Mexican Consulate. The four unfurled the group’s infamous Plan Colombia poster and spoke with those waiting for appointments in the Consulate about the long history of colonization, resource extraction, militarization and environmental degradation in Colombia, and its parallels to the situation in Mexico and Oaxaca.

From Detroit to Oaxaca, the spirit of Bety Cariño prevails amongst diverse and plentiful struggles to build a world where many world’s fit. The four hope that their message was heard amongst those of el mal gobierno. From thousands of miles away, they send thoughts and dreams of safety, autonomy and self-determination to the caravan traveling this moment to San Juan Copala.

Que Viva la Bety!
Que Viva San Juan Copala!
Que Viva una Mixteca Autonoma!

www.elenemigocomun.net

On June 8, anti-authoritarians and human rights activists are trying to break the paramilitary blockade of the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala in Oaxaca. We need to support them to help avoid another massacre.

In 2006, Oaxaca was the site of one of the most inspiring, important social rebellions of the decade. Between the brutal crackdown of the Mexican state and the constant harassment by paramilitaries, dozens of people have been killed and the rebellion was largely crushed, but parts of Oaxaca are still organizing their autonomy.

For five months, the Triqui village of San Juan Copala has faced severe paramilitary repression for declaring itself autonomous from the Mexican state and the neocolonial capitalist policies it enforces.

On April 27, paramilitaries attacked a convoy that included activists, anarchists, and humanitarian workers trying to reach the village to lift the paramilitary siege. Two people, Beatriz Alberto Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola, were killed and several were wounded. Beatriz, an indigenous Mixtec, was a long-time advocate for food sovereignty, community water management, soil conservation and indigenous autonomy. She directed the organization CACTUS (Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos). Jyri, 33 years old, was a Finnish human rights activist who had been involved in the Fair Trade movement and delivering humanitarian aid to Africa.

On May 15, paramilitaries kidnapped and beat 12 women and children inhabitants of the municipality, who were later released. On May 20, paramilitaries assassinated Cleriberta Castro and her husband, Timoteo Alejandro Ramirez, who was the leader of the indigenous Yosoyuxi community within the municipality.

Multiple indigenous, Zapatista, anti-authoritarian, human rights and other groups are calling for a second caravan to lift the blockade of the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala, arriving on June 8.

For this reason, we are calling for a day of solidarity actions the day before, on June 7, to create pressure and prevent another massacre. The paramilitaries work on behalf of the Mexican government and Mexican and international corporations invested in the area. They do the dirty work that provides the basis for state control and commercial investment.

As comrades in Oaxaca go face to face with the paramilitary thugs, all the rest of us need to let the bosses of the paramilitaries know there will be consequences for more brutality.

Call-ins or protests at Mexican consulates, visits to corporations invested in Mexico, counter-information and direct action are all necessary. Because solidarity spreads or it dies.

Decentralized Solidarity Actions on June 7: Against Capitalism and its Death Squads! For Indigenous Self-Determination!

–anarchists and anti-authoritarians in Boston, Chicago, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle, Olympia, Tacoma and beyond.

Para más información en español
http://www.kaosenlared.net/noticia/oaxaca-mexico-nuevo-ataque-paramilitar-causa-dos-muertos-san-juan-copa
for more information in English see
http://elenemigocomun.net/
http://elenemigocomun.net/3444

Puget Sound Action:
Seattle, Tacoma, & Olympia anarchists & antiauthoritarians will be at the Mexican Consulate in Seattle at 1 PM on Monday June 7th for a demonstration in front of the consulate. Colonization continues this day in Oaxaca and the Northwest, through the destruction of resources, the marginalization of peoples, and the crushing of struggles of resistance. The state sponsored violence in Oaxaca is a clear incident of repression that is deeply connected to the state’s monopoly on violence everywhere; from the NW Detention Center in the Tacoma tideflats, to the April 17th police beating (wherein the cop said explicitly “I’m going to beat the fucking Mexican piss out of you homey.”) of a Latino man in Seattle, and the 2008 police killing of José Ramírez-Jiménez in Olympia, as well as the ongoing raids and kidnapping of all migrant peoples in the Northwest. For comrades in Oaxaca, for comrades everywhere we stand in solidarity with all those that dare to take their lives into their own hands. For the destruction of all borders and those that uphold them. For the freedom of movement! Solidarity means attack.

Mexican Consulate (Seattle): 2132 3rd Ave. 98121
Number: (206) 448-3526 Ext 117 and 118
FAX: (206) 448-4771
Email: comexico1@qwestoffice.net

–

source: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/06/01/18649472.php

May 21st, St Paul, MN — A group of Minnesota activists delivered a letter to the Mexican consulate in the wake of yesterday’s assassination of community leader Alejandro Ramirez and his wife Cleriberta Castro in their home in San Juan Copala.

“We are here to condemn continued paramilitary attacks on women, children, and movement leaders in Oaxaca San Juan Copala, Mexico,” shouted one protester. “We demand an immediate investigation into these calculated murders and campaign of intimidation by the Mexican government!”

Activists hung a banner over I-35 on Monday, and urged friends and family to call into the consulate all week leading up to today’s protest.

Officials at the consulate made copies of the letters while expressing concern with the issues raised, but denied any government involvement with the paramilitaries. They cited economic development of the San Juan Copala region as a solution for the civil conflict in the area.

Many Oaxacans share a different vision of “development.” They see the word used as a pretext to exploit their communities, and undermine their internationally recognized right to self determination as indigenous people, rather than a path to peace.

A May 18 communique from the Autonmous Municipality Of San Juan Copala reads: “We make clear that this resistance struggle has as its final goal to recuperate our history and culture, with a great respect for our mother earth; to achieve development towards the dignified life that we all desire, where peace and justice reign.”

According to the independent website http://mywordismyweapon.blogspot.com/:

“San Juan Copala made international headlines last month when alleged members of the Union for the Social Well-being of the Triqui Region (UBISORT) opened fire on an international aid caravan headed to the besieged community. Mexican social leader Bety Cariño and Finnish observor Jyri Jaakkola died in the attack. The caravan was bringing food, clothing, water, and medicine to San Juan Copala, which UBISORT paramilitaries have blockaded since January. No one can enter or leave the community, and the paramilitaries cut off electricity and running water.

The intense international outrage that followed the caravan attack did nothing to stem the violence. Two weeks after the attack, UBISORT paramilitaries kidnapped six Triqui women, five children, and a baby when they snuck out of Copala to purchase food in the market of the nearby town of Juxtlahuaca. The Oaxaca state government and the Oaxaca State Human Rights Commission refused to accompany the woman back to San Juan Copala to ensure their safe passage.”

“We as U.S. citizens have the responsibility to hold our own government accountable for the increased militarization of Mexico,” explained one organizer.

“Since 2008, the U.S. government has used the “war against drugs and organized crime” to justify $1.6 Billion in funding for the Merida Initiative giving weapons, intelligence and training to a repressive regime. There can be no question that U.S. foreign policies are financing the militarization of communities in Oaxaca,” she said.

With all eyes on Oaxaca, San Juan Copala has called for a second, larger international caravan to the autonomous municipality on June 8.

–

source: http://tc.indymedia.org

“The indigenous, autonomous community of San Juan Copala has been in a desperate situation for a while now,” writes a Minneapolis activist working in Oaxaca. “They have been surviving persistent paramilitary attacks and are close to death as the paramilitaries have cut them off from food and water supplies. The solidarity caravan had intended to support them and try to bring attention to the attacks, but the government is so hell-bent on destroying this community that there was no hesitation to send paramilitaries to murder the participants. These were assassinations, not random shootings.”

“This will continue to happen in communities like San Juan Copala that are resisting, there is knowledge that there are more attacks planned of higher severity. The need for international solidarity is so desperate as it is so important to bring attention and acknowledgement to what is going on down here.”

She is describing the April 27 paramilitary assault on a humanitarian caravan in which Oaxacan CACTUS (Center for Community Assistance Working Together) director Bety Cariño and Finnish international observer Juri Jaakkola were murdered and others seriously injured. The caravan was bringing supplies to the blockaded autonomous Triqui community of San Juan Copala, along with teachers planning to reopen the schools shut down by right-wing paramilitaries. The state government has since claimed that Oaxacan organizers murdered their own people to discredit the state.

The attacks on San Juan Copala are part of a sustained state and corporate campaign against indigenous communities, especially when those communities have been fighting the destruction of the natural environment. Both the Oaxacan popular movements and the specifically indigenous movements in Oaxaca have a sophisticated political/environmental analysis and strong connections with popular organizations throughout Mexico. These attacks are not only intended to dispose the peoples of Oaxaca; they are intended to smash a strong and threatening political movement.

“This has everything to do with U.S. laws like the Arizona SB1070 and the Merida Initiative, these are all connected into increasing amounts of white supremacist imperialist control and San Juan Copala is an example of these new laws mean,” writes the activist from Minneapolis.

People in Minnesota are urged to contact the Mexican consulate or join a delegation which will deliver a letter to the consul in St. Paul on Friday, May 21. (Details also at the end of the article.)

The autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala

On January 21, 2007, Triqui communities in western Oaxaca declared themselves the new, autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala, governed by the traditional “uses and customs” and open assemblies rather than by the PRI, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the legendarily corrupt state political party which ruled Mexico uninterrupted from the 1920s until 2000 The media immediately said that the area was too poor to function independently; the PRI declared it a “spectacle”. But this spectacle was so threatening that it would draw instant and aggressive attack–the murder of activist Roberto Garcia Flores on his way to the inauguration.

“We know the government is not going to recognize us, but we are going to recognize (the new entity) as our own government and we are going to support it. We are going to govern ourselves because they (the municipal governments) are not indigenous, they’re not Triqui, and they don’t know how to govern,” asserted Jorge Albino Ortiz, council member of the APPO (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca) on behalf of the Unified Movement for the Triqui Independence Struggle (MULTI, Movimiento Unificado de Lucha Triqui Independiente.)

In fall of 2009, endemic violence against San Juan Copala intensified. On November 29, members of the UBISORT paramilitary (a nominally indigenous Triqui organization) blocked the entrance to the township, while other armed groups came down from the hills and shot into the town, killing a nine-year-old child and wounding two other children. Apparently, the immediate goal was to prevent members of People’s Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) of San Salvador Atenco from entering the town for a meeting. The FPDT is a social movement working against state and corporate projects such as dams, mines and highways on indigenous land.

In the wake of this attack, schools and the market were closed. Right-wing forces affiliated with the PRI, the party that governs the state of Oaxaca, blockaded the town and cut the water pipes and electrical cables. UBISORT paramilitaries took over the municipal building at the center of town. Provocation, occupation, militarization–after its own violence, UBISORT has called for national troops to “pacify” the area.

On Tuesday, April 27, a humanitarian caravan went to San Juan Copala from Oaxaca, made up of activists from the APPO, the radical Section 22 of the teachers union, the Center for Community Support Working Together (CACTUS), Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Liberty (VOCAL), two reporters from the Mexican magazine Contralinea, and international observers from Belgium, Finland, Italy, and Germany. In the afternoon, the caravan came to a blockade in the road and gunmen armed with AK-47s began to shoot at people. They killed organizer Betty Carina and observer Juri Jaakkola. Paramilitaries detained members of the caravan, identifying themselves as members of UBISORT and speaking of their connection to the PRI.

Then On May 14, paramilitaries kidnapped 11 women and children who had gone from San Juan Copala to a neighboring town. They were told that they would be killed if they tried to return to San Juan Copala with food. All were released days later.

Since then, the town of San Juan Copala has called for another caravan and for national and international witness:

“Because silence cannot be imposed through the sound of gunfire: We call for the Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola Humanitarian Caravan which will occur on June 8, 2010…

The humanitarian conditions are extreme and the people cannot bear it anymore, without water, electricity, or food, the families need our support and solidarity, which is why we seek to coordinate with national and international human rights groups. We also call on the International Red Cross, Amnesty International, Peace Brigades International, and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico to join this caravan to the extent that they are able.

To the national and international media, committed to the truth, that you document and verify the reality of San Juan Copala, that you tell the world how the subjugated and exploited live in Mexico and Oaxaca, that you see firsthand the inhuman conditions that Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola sought to document, losing their lives for it.

The integrity and security of all who accompany this caravan is the responsibility of the Mexican state as a whole, the rights outlined in our constitution and international treaties cannot be circumscribed by paramilitary groups or corrupt governments.

The Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola Humanitarian Caravan will succeed in breaking the paramilitary siege and saving the lives of the more than 70 families who are surviving under inhuman conditions.

Because the rights of the Triqui people are not under the control of any paramilitary group!

Because justice and peace can only be achieved by building from below!

Everyone to San Juan Copala on June 8!”

Signed by the Authorities of the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala

The Struggle for Triqui Autonomy

Triqui people have fought against colonization for two hundred years, initially driving the Spanish away from their land base in western Oaxaca in 1823 and 1843. Since the early 20th century government and corporations have attempted to exploit natural resources and agricultural labor, often through violence.

Historically, political murders have been labeled “land disputes among indigenous people”, although the political violence has been either instigated or directly committed by the state. In the 1920s, when coffee production was first introduced, Triqui farmers who refused to raise the new crop were harassed and sometimes murdered by Triqui people in the pay of outside corporations or by agents of the corporations themselves. In 1948, Triqui land was divided into five municipalities and the area heavily militarized. Political violence in Oaxaca is sometimes among indigenous people, but it is initiated by the state against those struggling for traditional and new forms of autonomy.

In the late seventies, the Movimiento de Unificación y Lucha Triqui (MULT or the Movement of Triqui Unification and Struggle) was formed to organize against large landowners and corrupt political bosses. So successful was MULT that it began to threaten the PRI’s hold on the region; the PRI responded by bribing some members of MULT, assassinating many and driving others to flee to the US. In 2003, MULT declared itself a political party. Members of MULT worked with the military police during the 2006 uprising in Oaxaca. But some supporters of San Juan Copala identify as part of MULT; the organization seems to have different meanings in different places.

In 2006, MULTI was created, the Movimiento de Unificación y Lucha Triqui Independiente. MULTI is strong in San Juan Copala and is affiliated with other popular organizations in Oaxaca. Since 2006, more than 20 members of MULTI have been disappeared by the paramilitaries.

In these struggles, organizational alliances have changed over time and vary from town to town. What has not changed is that when indigenous people–or the ordinary people of Oaxaca–try to rule themselves, the state and its shifting group of allies respond with assassinations, threats and propaganda.

Somewhere just west of Chiapas

Oaxaca is one of the southernmost Mexican states, sharing a border with west of Chiapas. Oaxaca’s population is one-third indigenous. Oaxaca is resource-rich and cash-poor, rich in gold, silver, copper and uranium–a target for international mining corporations operating outside Mexican environmental law. Ninety percent of the indigenous population lives by agriculture or animal husbandry. Big landowners have tremendous political influence, often holding political office and ceding land and resources to corporate cronies. Schools are desperately underfunded — if you’re looking for bitter humor, consider the country schools which use internet-based books and materials–but they have no internet!

The governor of Oaxaca is PRI politician Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, who took power in 2004 amid charges of fraud after an election in which only 40% of the electorate voted. Funds intended for job creation, schools and other government services have been skimmed off to enrich Ruiz’s cronies, and then Ruiz has used police and paramilitary violence to suppress strikes, protest and critical journalism, as well as to murder his opposition.

In 1994, the year of the Zapatista uprising, the right-wing paramilitary organization UBISORT (Unión de Bienestar Social de la Región Triqui) was formed to fight against Zapatista influence and popular organization in the region. UBISORT is relatively small in numbers but heavily armed with AK-47s supplied by the state–probably bought with money from US government programs.

The tangled web of neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is nakedly visible in Oaxaca, where the violence against poor and indigenous people is both racialized and economic–political violence is often aimed at ordinary people’s livelihoods, particularly traditional indigenous land use. In May of 2009, 700 armed police broke up the 40-day blockade of a silver mine by indigenous Zapotec people struggling against Fortuna, a Canadian silver mining company. Cyanide is used in extracting silver; the cyanide, mercury, arsenic and lead leak into the local water supply. Prior to the blockade, twenty cattle had died from drinking contaminated water, a substantial loss in a poor agricultural community. People had met in assembly and decided to blockade the mines, over threats from the local mayor. The police came in with dogs, tear gas and guns. They beat protesters and detained 28 people. There are many other mining projects in Oaxaca, more now that the price of gold and silver has risen in response to global financial uncertainty.

Under NAFTA and the Merida initiative (a US-Mexico security plan heavily supported by the conservative Heritage Foundation), the US government provides money, training and occasionally troops to prosecute the drug war in Mexico. De facto, this means that the US government arms the police and soldiers who break up strikes, blockades and protests. US government funding also strengthens the Attorney General’s Office of the Mexican Justice Department, which already routinely refuses information to opposition groups and human rights investigations. Naturally, the violence which accompanies the drug trade continues since poverty, government corruption and a lucrative US market do nothing to discourage it.

The US is certainly invested in “security” in Oaxaca. The Department of Defense gave at least $500,000 to University of Kansas researchers to map “indigenous” territory in the state, under the supervision of an army security expert, Geoffrey Demarest, who has written that “informal property ownership in either rural or urban settings is the breeding ground for criminal or insurrectionary activity.”

2006 – “Ruiz Fuera!”

“There isn’t much to say about the city itself. It is a farce of government sponsored concerts and festivals for tourists, and as election time is approaching there is PRI propaganda everywhere,” the Minneapolis activist says in an email. “To an unknowing eye, it seems like everything is hunky-dory here and like the government has control. But really, there is so much dissent and very few have any amount of confidence in political parties and government systems.”

In May 2006, the Oaxaca teachers’ union went on strike and occupied the main square of the capital. The union strikes almost every year, since the schools are underfunded and only strikes seem to generate raises or changes in conditions. In past years, the strikes had been peaceful and had lasted for several weeks before being settled. In 2006, the strike intensified over an effort to end a regional tiered pay system and increase student grants. Ruiz responded by attempting to break the union–calling in political allies to write letters of condemnation and recruiting mayors to demand local control of school conditions rather than conditions negotiated with the union. On June 14th, Ruiz sent 3000 military police to clear the square. A pitched street battle put a hundred people in the hospital, and widespread anger at Ruiz and the state coalesced into collective action. The APPO (the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca) was formed out of social movements, unions, cooperatives, representatives of Oaxaca’s independent municipalities, indigenous rights organizing and other anti-state groups. On June 17 APPO reoccupied the main square and declared itself the governing body of Oaxaca. Ruiz fled to Mexico City.

It is important to note that the PRI and the PAN (National Action Party, which replaced the PRI as Mexico’s ruling party) worked together against the uprising in Oaxaca.

Between June and October, the APPO governed the city, despite attacks on APPO members by the right and by police. The conflict was present in the immediate daily life of the city, with roadblocks, occupations, marches and violence against strikers. The APPO took over a number of the city’s radio and television stations to coordinate actions–in the past, the state government had denied radio and television licenses to groups critical of the state. In August, plain clothes police and right-wing organizations attacked a number of these stations, killing six APPO members. In October, Indymedia photographer Brad Will was shot, apparently by a paramilitary PRI member, as was Raúl Marcial Pérez, an Indigenous community leader and columnist for the regional daily El Gráfico. At month’s end, thousands of military police and soldiers drove the APPO out of Oaxaca’s main square, attacking protestors with chemical grenades and staging raids on the houses of APPO members. An unknown number of people were killed, including dozens of APPO members. Further police assaults and protests continued through November. Many APPO organizers went into hiding.

The involvement of indigenous people (and MULT-I) in this struggle hasn’t always been counted. Two Triqui activists and a young boy were shot in 2006 after leaving an APPO meeting, apparently targeted for being MULT-I members who affiliated with APPO. Their deaths were described as that same “violence among indigenous people” which is not investigated, not assigned causes, believed to be irrational.

In the wake of 2006, there was conflict within the teachers’ union and a move to push out leaders who had collaborated with the PRI. APPO members continued to meet clandestinely and then openly. The APPO has organized large marches against political violence and worked with indigenous communities against neoliberal projects like the Fortuna mine described above. Meanwhile, the government continues to arrest activists and the paramilitaries continue to murder them–among these were two Triqui women radio activists, Felicitas Martinez, age 20, and Teresa Bautista, age 24,who were shot to death as they travelled to a political meeting. Continuing neoliberal projects–the privatization of parts of social security, a 29% rise in bus fares, doubled fertilizer costs–are the other half of the violence.

While here, where we live

“I think that’s the most important thing for people wanting to show solidarity in the U.S., that this has everything to do with U.S. laws like the Arizona SB1070 and the Merida Initiative, these are all connected into increasing amounts of white supremacist imperialist control and San Juan Copala is an example of what these new laws mean,” writes the activist from Minneapolis.

US initiatives move money, arms and law enforcement agents into Mexico so that gold, silver, uranium, labor, coffee and other profitable items can be taken out. US immigration laws guarantee that Mexican immigrants can be exploited, controlled and then jailed or thrown out.

At the same time, Oaxaca and San Juan Copala are real, living examples of popular uprising, in its slow unfolding, confusion and amazing actions. San Juan Copala is a community of people organizing themselves according to the expressed wishes of the community itself. We ought to be cheering with joy, but the least we can do is respond to calls to action.

Write, call and demonstrate at your local Mexican consulate, as has been happening nationwide.

Join us in calling the Mexican Consulate to DEMAND the following:

-End the paramilitary attacks and harassment in the Triqui region and in particular against the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala NOW.

-Identify and hold accountable the individual(s) responsible – both materially and intellectually – for the murders of Beatriz Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola and the injuries inflicted upon Mónica Citlali Santiago Ortiz, Noé Bautista Jiménez and others.

And stay informed and spread the word! Injustice can continue when there is no outcry, no response, and only silence. Tell your friends, family and co-workers what’s happening and encourage them to take action.

Author’s Note: This article was based on communication with an activist in Oaxaca, translated material from Narco News and articles and interviews posted on El Enemigo Común and My Word Is My Weapon (you can tell from the links!) The details of the situation in Oaxaca are obviously really complicated–anyone who has more knowledge about this situation, feel free to correct any wrong assumptions I may have made and I’ll be glad to change the story.

source: http://twincities.indymedia.org

TO THE STATE, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
TO THE OTHER CAMPAIGN
TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS
TO THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO

Comrades of the media, we have called you together at the request of the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala. As the bearers of the voice of our people, we want all the people of Mexico to hear directly from us what happened on the 27th of last month and what continues to happen in our community.

That day, a group of criminals who call themselves the UBISORT social organization cowardly and treacherously murdered two human rights observers who were part of the caravan that departed from Huajuapan de León and who attempted, in a peaceful manner, to observe the criminal harassment which our people have been subjected to. The murderers, obeying the orders of he who hides his criminal face in the halls of government, have cut the drinking water and electricity and have obstructed the entry of food and teachers into the community, causing our children’s basic level classes to be suspended and for the health center’s medic to be forced to abandon the town. This is how the powerful in this country seek to put down the resistance and the quest for a dignified life for indigenous communities in Mexico.

We admit that in our region there are residents who, renouncing their culture and denying their history, serve the interests of the powerful who have always sowed division amongst us with the one goal of expelling the legitimate heirs to these lands in order to appropriate their natural wealth. As residents of San Juan Copala, we know who committed these crimes, and we know not only because of all they have done to us before but because they are the same who in the days before the caravan made public threats in the media. They are the same who obstructed the passage of the comrades from San Salvador Atenco, they are the same who, with brazen statements to some media outlets, are now trying to blame us for their criminal actions.

It is necessary to clarify that the Autonomous Municipality project of San Juan Copala was not created on a whim, on the contrary, because we know and love our history, it is an agreement of communal assembly that arose with the intent of pacifying the region through an indigenous government which rules through uses and customs without the interference of political parties and organizations, as we are convinced that a government which LEADS BY OBEYING will bring forgiveness, reconciliation and peace to our peoples in order to achieve the social development that we so desire. We want those who govern us to walk with us with a deep respect for our mother earth, our culture and our indigenous cosmovision; because of this we issue a fraternal call to our brothers and sisters who walk with the dignity of being indigenous to let us strengthen the communal assemblies, as it will be those which, sooner rather than later, will carry the fate of the region and expel from our grounds those who, believing us incapable of thinking, make decisions without ever consulting the people, they are those who, in the end, foster division and violence.

We demand that the Mexican state punish those responsible for all the crimes committed in the Triqui region, particularly the murders of our comrade Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola and we ask all of you to assist us in denouncing this state of injustice and watching to see that there is no impunity.

Finally, and as a result of the grave state of injustice and despair which we endure in the Municipality of San Juan Copala, we have asked the Diocesan Commission of Peace and Justice and the Bartolomé Carrasco Regional Human Rights Center to assist us in convening another humanitarian and observational caravan, making provisions for all the security measures and coordinating with all the national and international human rights organizations interested in corroborating the situation we live under in San Juan Copala, we need everyone in order to reach the political agreements that will definitively break the paramilitary, economic, political, social, media and starvation siege which is confronting our town.

We send a hug to our brother Omar and reaffirm our commitment to never give up, because the future that we yearn for is near. We know and believe that the night is darkest before the dawn.

http://autonomiaencopala.wordpress.com

At the demonstration at the Mexican Consulate in solidarity with San Juan Copala and to demand justice for Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola on Friday, the Deputy Consul Ismael Naveja came out to speak with some of us briefly and proposed we bring a statement with specific demands and concerns that he will communicate to officials in Mexico.

After consulting and soliciting input from individuals and organizations in Oaxaca who were involved with the solidarity caravan, Kevin Caplicki and I produced the below statement and delivered it to Deputy Consul Naveja on Tuesday afternoon.  While we certainly are not expecting it alone to spur the Mexican government into action, it is one tactic that can be widely employed to demonstrate solidarity with the caravan members and the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala.

May 4, 2010

Dear Deputy Consul Naveja,

We are presenting you this letter on behalf of a community of individuals and organizations in New York concerned with recent incidents in the state of Oaxaca.

As you know, on April 27, a humanitarian caravan carrying aid to the besieged community of San Juan Copala in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca was ambushed by armed men from the paramilitary organization UBISORT.  Using army-grade weapons, they fired on the defenseless caravan, killing Beatriz Alberta Cariño, director of Center of Community Support Working Together (CACTUS), and Finnish international human rights observer Jyri Antero Jaakkola.  Several more were wounded, others spent days in hiding in the countryside, and other still were threatened with death by UBISORT gunmen.

We denounce this attack in the strongest possible terms.  It is outrageous and unacceptable that a paramilitary group linked to the PRI and Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz can not only attack a humanitarian caravan but can lay siege to a community for months on end with complete impunity and with no response from the federal government.In light of this grave situation, we strongly urge that the following be communicated to and acted upon by the federal government:

• Identify and punish the individual(s) responsible – both materially and intellectually – for the murders of Beatriz Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola and the injuries inflicted upon Mónica Citlali Santiago Ortiz, Noé Bautista Jiménez and others.
• End the paramilitary attacks and harassment in the Triqui region and in particular against the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala.
• Ensure respect for the rights guaranteed to indigenous communities such as San Juan Copala as outlined in the International Labor Organization Convention Number 169, including their right to autonomy and self-government.
• Enforce respect for the human and individual rights of the inhabitants of San Juan Copala, including their,
• Freedom of movement and travel
• Right to education
• Right to health care
• Right to food
• Right to freedom of association
• Guarantee the physical and psychological well-being and safety of all members of the humanitarian caravan, their family members and supporters, in particular caravan members Rubén Valencia Nuñez and Gabriela Jiménez, as well as Beatriz Cariño’s family members, especially her husband Omar Esparza, all of whom have received death threats. The harassment by plainclothes police officers of caravan member Noé Bautista Jiménez, who is currently in the IMSS Hospital General de Zona 01 in Oaxaca, along with his family and friends, must also cease immediately.
• Open federal investigations by the PGR into crimes of commission or omission against the caravan and the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala by the following individuals:
• Ulises Ernesto Ruiz Ortiz, Governor of Oaxaca
• Evencio Nicolás Martínez Ramírez, Secretary-General of the Government of Oaxaca
• María de la Luz Candelaria Chiñas, Oaxaca State Attorney General
• Jorge Franco Vargas “El Chuky”, PRI Federal Deputy
• Carlos Martínez, PRI candidate for the Oaxaca state congress

The attack on the humanitarian caravan and the continued aggression against the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala are matters of great concern to individuals and organizations in Oaxaca, in Mexico and around the world. As the government of Oaxaca, led by Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, has shown no interest in ensuring the human rights of that state’s inhabitants, and instead has been an active violator of the human rights of Oaxacans, it is incumbent upon the federal government to act and ensure those responsible for the paramilitary attacks are brought to justice and that human rights are respected and enforced in Oaxaca and the rest of Mexico.

We look forward to your response to our concerns and federal government’s plan of action regarding the events in San Juan Copala.

Sincerely,

Scott Campbell
East Coast Coordinator,
Friends of Brad Will

Kevin Caplicki