El Enemigo Común

October 29, 2008 - Scott Campbell writes: Pedro Matías, a well-known reporter who writes for Noticias, a local daily paper, as well as the national weekly Proceso, was kidnapped, beaten, tortured and robbed on Saturday night in Oaxaca. Reporters Without Borders states that,

Matías was kidnapped as he left the newspaper to go home on the evening of 25 October. His abductors beat him and terrorised him for hours, simulating an execution, asking him how he preferred to die and variously threatening to drag him along the ground behind their car, cut off his genitals, rape him or behead him. They also threatened his family members, saying they had been “located.”

He was released the next morning some 30 km outside Oaxaca in Tlacolula de Matamoros, without his car and without his papers, which his abductors also took from him.

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October 29, 2008: Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the abduction and mistreatment of reporter Pedro Matías Arrazola of the local daily Noticias de Oaxaca and the national weekly Proceso, who was beaten and psychologically tortured for about 12 hours on the night of 25 October in the southern city of Oaxaca before being dumped outside the city.

“The abduction of Matías was incredibly barbaric and, given that parliament is currently debating a bill to make attacks on journalists a federal crime, we call for the federal authorities to be immediately put in charge of the investigation,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“If this case were left unpunished as so many others have, especially in this region, there would be grounds for doubting the political will expressed at a high level to end Mexico’s tragic status as the western hemisphere’s most dangerous country for journalists,” the press freedom organisation added.

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New York City
Gathering in remembrance: noon, Press conference: 12:30 pm
Mexican Consulate
27 East 39th Street in Manhattan, between Madison and Park.
call in support and voice our demands: Phone: (212) 217-6400 Fax: (212) 217-6493
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Houston
10:30 am: Mexican Consulate 4506 Caroline, Houston TX 77004
call in support and voice our demands: phone: (713) 271 - 6800 Fax: (713) 271 - 3201
Nick Cooper and members of the Community speak: Brad Will’s Killers Remain At Large and Innocent Activists Are Being Charged in His Death
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Portland
10:00 - 11:30am: Mexican Consulate, 1234 SW Morrison St.,
Demand justice for his companeros charged with his murder!
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San Francisco
3pm: Mexican Consulate, 532 Folsom St
Call 917-991-2415 for more information
Friends of Brad Will will be gathering to remember the anniversary of the murder of Brad Will, Emilio Alfonso Fabian and Eudocia Olivera Diaz in Oaxaca and to issue a statement of demands.

October 24th, 2008: Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the Mexican federal justice ministry’s response to a recent recommendation by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) regarding the October 2006 fatal shooting of US cameraman Brad Will of the Indymedia agency in the southern city of Oaxaca (see 2 October release).

Not only has the ministry ignored the serious irregularities in the Will murder investigation but, on 22 October, a judge announced the indictment and imminent trial of three supporters of the grass-roots Popular Assembly of Oaxaca Peoples (APPO), two of whom have been freed on bail. Arrest orders were also issued for seven witnesses on a charge concealing a crime. Will was covering the APPO’s demonstrations against the Oaxaca state government at the time of his death.

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Oaxaca, October 21, 2008

To the People of Mexico,
To the Glorious and Militant People of Oaxaca,
To the adherents of the Sixth Declaration and the Other Campaign,
To human rights organizations in Mexico and the World:

Faced with constant threats and harassment against us and our families we write this letter so that the men and women of Mexico and the world are made aware of the abuse of power exercised recently by institutions such as the Federal Attorney General.

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October 23rd, 2008 - Kristin Bricker writes: Friends of Brad Will, an organization founded by friends and family of murdered Indymedia journalist Brad Will, has declared a four-day dry hunger strike and vigil in front of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s Manhattan office to demand that she take action on Will’s case. During the hunger strike, the protesters will not drink or eat.

Will was murdered in Oaxaca, Mexico, on October 27, 2006, while covering the popular uprising there.  Despite all evidence to the contrary, the Mexican government has blamed members and supporters of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca for the murder.  It has already arrested three people in the case, and says it has arrest warrants for eight more. All are APPO members or supporters.

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October 22nd, 2008 - Scott Campbell writes: As the second anniversary of the murder of Brad Will approaches, I’ve translated the summary section of Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) recent report on the state and federal governments’ investigations into the murder. The report is unique as the CNDH is largely a joke, and such a damning (though polite) report is rare. It reads awkwardly, as does the Spanish version, but I did the best I could to make it flow.

In other news, there was a march in Oaxaca yesterday to protest the arrest of APPO member Juan Martinez for the murder of Brad Will. It was led by Juan’s wife, Liliana. Neighbors in Santa Lucia del Camino, where Brad was killed, have announced they will be installing a barricade at 2pm on October 27, at the intersection of Ferrocarril and Calicanto and invite the public’s participation. Amnesty International issued an alert on Monday regarding the arrest of Juan Martinez, which stated in part,

Juan Manuel Martínez is currently detained in Santa Maria Ixcotel state prison, where he is at risk of torture or ill-treatment in order to force him to confess the 2006 murder of US videojournalist Brad Will. Amnesty International is also concerned that he may not be granted adequate access to a lawyer of his choice and members of his family.

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CASA (Colectivos de Apoyo, Solidaridad y Acción) has published a book documenting the experiences of teachers and others during the Oaxaca protests in 2006.

“Once you learn to speak, you don’t want to be quiet anymore,” an indigenous community radio activist said. Accompanied by photography and political art, Teaching Rebellion is a compilation of testimonies from longtime organizers, teachers, students, housewives, religious leaders, union members, schoolchildren, indigenous community activists, artists and journalists—and many others who participated in what became the Popular Assembly of the People’s of Oaxaca. This is a chance to listen directly to those invested in and affected by what quickly became one of the most important social uprisings of the 21st century.

Teaching Rebellion: Stories from the Grassroots Mobilization in Oaxaca, is currently touring the U.S. and Canada with Mexican guest speakers Gustavo Vilchis and Silvia Hernandez and CASA activists and interpreters Melissa Mundt and Chris Thomas.

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