Dear Supporter of Bradley Allen,

We are asking you to write one email and make one phone call… two actions that will not take more than 5 minutes of your time. Bradley has his next court date on Thursday, March 29th.

For more information on Bradley’s case, listen to a three minute news piece by KPFA Radio:
http://bradleystuart.net/2012/03/19/kpfa-news-bradley-stuart-allen/

Call Santa Cruz District Attorney Bob Lee on Tuesday, March 27 or Wednesday, March 28 from 9AM – 4PM and leave this brief message.
His number is: (831) 454-2400

“Hello my name is _________ and I am a resident of _________County. Please drop all charges against Bradley Allen on March 29 at his next hearing. Thank you.”

ALSO, Cut, paste & send the following email to District Attorney Bob Lee from 9AM- 4PM on Tuesday, March 27 or Wednesday, March 28.

We are keeping track of the number of emails and phone calls.
Please CC or send a copy to: dismisscharges@gmail.com

District Attorney e-mail: dao@co.santa-cruz.ca.us

Dear DA Bob Lee,

I am writing this in support of Bradley Allen.

I believe this is a case where a journalist is being interfered with for covering an “Occupy” protest—as they have in other U.S. cities. Yet, in other cities, charges have been dismissed or the defendant journalists have been acquitted.

Why is Santa Cruz pursuing these charges, at massive taxpayer expense?

I urge you, Bob Lee, District Attorney of Santa Cruz County, to IMMEDIATELY DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST BRADLEY ALLEN. It is unfair to promote one journalistic viewpoint over another by deterring independent journalists from closely reporting news and events as they happen.

I also do not see the merit in spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars and wasting the time, energy and resources to prosecute Bradley Allen. In addition to being a Journalist, Bradley is a professional Website Designer and dedicated Substitute Teacher.

The serious nature of these charges is totally unwarranted and damages his ability to continue making a living. He is facing a jail sentence of many months. The charges are undeserved and must be dismissed immediately.

(Your Name)
(Your Organization / Profession / Location)

SANTA CRUZ, CA — District Attorney Bob Lee has embarked on a full frontal assault against independent media in Santa Cruz by including four regular contributors to the independent news website Indybay.org amongst the eleven people charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors after the occupation of a vacant bank building on November 30th, 2011. District Attorney Lee apparently believes it is his duty to dictate how events such as the occupation of the vacant bank at 75 River Street should be reported on by the media, and if he does not approve of the coverage, then journalists risk the DA bringing charges against them.

by Indybay Collective

For Immediate Release

March 20, 2012

Contact: Ben Rice
Attorney for Bradley Stuart Allen
office: (831) 425-0555
cell: (831) 247-1105
benricelaw@gmail.com

Indybay Editorial Collective
(415) 633-6349
sfbay-web@lists.indymedia.org

Indybay Journalists Charged with Felony: Conspiracy to Make Media

Viewpoint Discrimination and Selective Prosecution at Work in Charges Against Independent Journalists

SANTA CRUZ, CA — District Attorney Bob Lee has embarked on a full frontal assault against independent media in Santa Cruz by including four regular contributors to the independent news website Indybay.org amongst the eleven people charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors after the occupation of a vacant bank building on November 30th, 2011. District Attorney Lee apparently believes it is his duty to dictate how events such as the occupation of the vacant bank at 75 River Street should be reported on by the media, and if he does not approve of the coverage, then journalists risk the DA bringing charges against them.

Bradley Stuart Allen and Alex Darocy are Indybay photojournalists and Indybay editors who were reporting on the occupation. No charges nor arrests were made at the time, but warrants were issued over two months later on February 8th, 2012 — for Bradley, Alex, and nine other individuals. Alex was arrested at his home before he could submit to the surprise warrant. Bradley and Alex were originally charged with felony vandalism, felony conspiracy, and two counts of misdemeanor trespass, but after a three-day preliminary hearing starting March 13th the felony vandalism charge against both was dropped. Alex and Bradley remain out of police custody on their own recognizance.

Selective Prosecution

On the face of it, the misdemeanor trespass charges filed against both Alex and Bradley for documenting the occupation from inside of the building seem in line with a February 8th press release from the DA which declared that the “District Attorney’s Office remains committed to enforcing the law.” But the DA fails to mention that his office is not committed to enforcing the law consistently and that the charges against Alex and Bradley are clearly a case of selective prosecution. District Attorney Lee knows full well that a staff photographer for the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper likewise shot photographs from inside of the occupied bank building, yet Lee has chosen not to file any charges against him. Why would a District Attorney pursue such a selective prosecution?

Viewpoint Discrimination

Upon reading court filings and hearing statements made by the District Attorney during the preliminary hearing for Bradley and Alex, it is apparent that District Attorney Lee believes he is entitled to dictate the terms of media coverage in Santa Cruz County. In a brief filed prior to the preliminary hearing, DAs Lee and Rebekah Young wrote this about Alex’s and Bradley’s coverage of the occupation: “Their postings contain no interviews (or even attempted interviews) with representatives from the police, with the property owners, or with members of the community who might not have been in favor of the group’s conduct.” This is clearly viewpoint discrimination on the part of the District Attorney. According to Bob Lee’s logic, if journalists do not interview police for a story, then somehow those journalists’ rights and privileges as members of the media no longer matter.

Conspiracy to Make Media

As for the most serious remaining charge, felony conspiracy, District Attorney Lee has offered absolutely no supporting evidence of a criminal collusion. The DA has not argued that Alex and Bradley had prior knowledge that the building would be occupied. The DA simply asserts that the mere act of newsgathering at an announced demonstration, which turned into an unannounced building occupation, constitutes felony conspiracy to promote trespass and vandalism. In the same preliminary hearing supplemental brief referenced above, the DA wrote: “The defendants’ presence and postings… aided and abetted the organization’s occupation of the property.” From this, District Attorney Lee takes another leap by claiming that Bradley and Alex “effectively serv[ed] as the media arm of the organization; the group’s propagandists.” The “conspiracy” is nothing more than reporting on a newsworthy event.

Ben Rice, who is representing Bradley, states, “As the control of ‘news’ is increasingly controlled by the ’1 percent’ we have to stop the government from deciding who or what sources may lawfully provide alternate sides to important stories. At Bradley’s preliminary hearing, we presented evidence from expert witnesses that Indymedia and Bradley are legitimate news sources. We provided evidence that Bradley has been using his skill as a photojournalist for ten years to examine many of our world’s most perplexing social problems. Bradley’s focus on those issues is particularly important because so many of them are ignored by mainstream media. The judge’s determination to keep the conspiracy charge alive should give all journalists pause.”

Free Alex and Bradley! Independent Media Is Not a Crime!

The National Press Photographers Association (NPAA) and The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) wrote a Letter Brief addressed to the court seeking dismissal of charges. In a related joint press release, the NPAA and RCFP wrote: “This is just the most recent case where journalists have been interfered with and arrested while covering Occupy Wall Street protests throughout the country. In almost every case, those charges — ranging from disorderly conduct and obstruction of governmental administration to trespass — have been dismissed or the defendant journalists have been acquitted.” So why is Bob Lee pursuing these charges, at taxpayer expense, unless to unfairly promote one journalistic viewpoint over another by deterring independent journalists from closely reporting on social justice movements as they happen.

Stop the harassment and intimidation of independent journalists! Drop the charges against Bradley Stuart Allen and Alex Darocy now!

About the Santa Cruz and SF Bay Area Independent Media Centers

Santa Cruz Indymedia has been the Independent Media Center (IMC) for the Monterey Bay Area since 2001. In 2006, Santa Cruz IMC became regionally integrated with Indybay.org, the website of the San Francisco Bay Area IMC, itself online since 2000. Together these Northern California IMCs are a non-commercial, democratic collective of independent media makers and media outlets serving as the local organizing unit of the global Indymedia network.

For more information and further updates about the case, see:

www.indybay.org/mediaconspiracy

###

Bradley Stuart Allen and Alex Darocy

To the communication media
To Public Opinion
To the State and Municipal Authorities
To the General Citizenry

The Oaxaca Collective in Defense of the Lands and the organizations signed below have received information from the residents of the municipality of San José del Progreso and the Coordinator of the United Peoples of the Valley of Ocotlán (CPUVO), that today, March 15, 2012, our companions Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez, Rosalinda Canseco and Andrés Vásquez Sánchez were ambushed by armed groups at the turnoff to Santa Lucía, Ocotlán, Oaxaca between 9:00 and 10:00 at night while they were riding in an automobile.

According to information received, Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez, Leader of Coordinator of the United Peoples of the Valley of Ocotlán, died from gunshot wounds.

Antecedents:

Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez and the CPUVO had been alerting state and federal authorities since 2008 about possible confrontations in the community of San José del Progreso, due to the initiation of mining operations by the company Cuzcatlán S.A de C.V., a branch of the Canadian Fortuna Silver Mines, without consent of the community.

In repeated occasions the members of the CPUVO complained that the mining company was financing armed groups in the community with the endorsement of the municipal president of San José del Progreso (Alberto Mauro Sánchez).

State authorities ignored those denunciations, to the extent that they affirmed that the opposition group was seeking only to destabilize the community, when the facts were to the contrary.

On January 18 of 2012, C. Bernardo Méndez Vásquez was assassinated by order of the municipal president of San José del Progreso Alberto Mauro Sánchez. In that ambush C. Abigaíl Vásquez Sánchez was gravely wounded. State authorities again did not get involved, on the contrary, they gave aid to the presumed murderers by once again criminalizing the members of the CPUVO.

Given these facts we denounce:

We repudiate the passive and indolent attitude of the state government in the face of this social and political conflict in San José del Progreso. Up to this moment there has been no punishment of those responsible for the death of our companion Bernardo Méndez Vásquez, assassinated January 18, 2012.

We demand of the state and federal authorities justice and punishment of those responsible for the death of Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez, assassinated March 15, 2012.

We again denounce that the mining company Cuzcatlán counts on armed groups within the community and enjoys complete backing by municipal and state authorities.

We hold responsible the municipal president of San José del Progreso, Alberto Mauro Sánchez, and the mining company Cuzcatlán for the cowardly assassinations of Bernardo Méndez Vásquez and Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez.

We again demand that the principal petition of the Coordinator of the United Peoples of the Valley of Ocotlán (CPUVO) be respected: the immediate departure of the mining company since, by their entry and by their acts of corruption it is clear that diverse confrontations have been generated in the community, sadly ending the lives of two defenders of human rights.

We demand justice:

Colectivo Oaxaqueño en Defensa de los Territorios

Servicios del Pueblo Mixe, Ser Mixe A.C.

Servicios para una Educación Alternativa EDUCA A.C.

Centro de Derechos Indígenas Flor y Canto A.C.

Centro de Derechos Humanos Bartolomé Carrasco Briseño, BARCA A.C.

Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, Centro Prodh A.C.

Unión de Organizaciones de la Sierra Juárez de Oaxaca, UNOSJO S.C.

Hello Friends and Family!!!!!

We are extremely excited about the latest Manovuelta film Cuando Una Mujer Avanza, which is about a young Oaxacan woman who is an absolutely amazing Hip Hop / Rap artist. This sister not only rhymes and sings in verse about real life situations faced by a young native woman from southern Mexico, but she also speaks to the entire world from a rarely heard perspective on life and community liberation.

This is Manovuelta’s first attempt at an Indiegogo fundraising campaign. Please check out and spread the word about the film trailer and the Indiegogo campaign itself to support this project. Thank you so much.

El Enemigo Común

Campaign on Indiegogo | Trailer | Facebook

Documentary film about amazing Indigenous Female Hip Hop Artist from Oaxaca, packed with music videos and an amazing world view from a rarely heard perspective.

Cuando Una Mujer Avanza – (When a Woman Takes a Step Forward)

A documentary film about “Mare” a female hip hop artist from Oaxaca, Mexico. Mare is medicine for the devaluating experiences of many young women of color today. As a young native Zapotec female MC born in Oaxaca City, her unique life experience is a rarely heard perspective on life and community liberation. As an up and coming MC in a state know for popular and indigenous rebellion, Mare’s life and experience has been channeled into very power full and conscious rapping and singing.

The Impact

Manovuelta has contributed to these type of independent community based documentaries for the last 4 years, and together we have developed strategies for touring the films, distributing them, and and ensuring the films directly benefit the community members that the films are about. No matter what happens we will, finish this film, and it will be screened and distributed through our current networks.

What is exciting to us about Indiegogo is reaching a much broader audience, amplifying our distribution network, and developing new strategies to help our films get out there, and truly benefit the community members we work with. Recently we have been depending a lot on University honorariums as our only funding source, however this source is clearly drying up. So Indiegogo is an attempt at seeing if our networks and the Indiegogo network can help continue to push our film projects a little further along together, by giving a lot of different people the ability to support from far away.

What We Need & What You Get

Please visit our campaign on Indiegogo to find out the full details, including what we need, and what you get.

http://beta.indiegogo.com/Cuando-Una-Mujer-Avanza-When-a-Woman-Steps-Forward

Trailer: Cuando Una Mujer Avanza (When A Woman Steps Forward)
http://vimeo.com/37297934

Cuando Una Mujer Avanza on Facebook

We ask your solidarity in spreading the word about the case in all possible media, and we ask that you write to the following officials to demand the immediate freedom of Bettina Cruz Velázquez as well as the adoption of measures to guarantee her safety and physical integrity.

Dr. Alejandro Poiré Romero
Secretario de Gobernación
Bucareli 99, 1er. piso, Col. Juárez
México D.F., C.P.06600, México
Fax: +52 55 5093 3414
Email: secretario@segob.gob.mx

Dr. Raúl Plascencia Villanueva
Presidente dela Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos
Edificio “Héctor Fix Zamudio”, Blvd. Adolfo

López Mateos 1922, 6° piso, Col. Tlacopac San Ángel, Del. Álvaro Obregón, C.P. 01040, México, D.F.
Tels. y fax (55) 56 81 81 25 y 54 90 74 00
correo@cndh.org.mx

Lic. Omeheira López Reyna
Unidad para la Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Humanos SEGOB.
Tel: +52 5551280000 Ext: 11875 o +52

http://tierrayterritorio.wordpress.com/

Once again, we the men, women, children and elders of the Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Rights (CODEDI), will set out from our communities of Santiago Xanica, San Felipe Lachillo, Santa María Coixtepec, San Antonio Ozolotepec, Buena Vista Loxicha, Tierra Blanca Loxicha, and Las Cuevas Santo Domingo, this February 20, 2012.

We will engage in the following activities: a political rally outside the criminal court at Santa María Huatulco at 9:00 am on February 20; a rally outside the criminal court and regional prison at San Pedro Pochutla at 12:00 noon the same day; and a rally in the center of the Miahuatlan District at 8:00 pm. On the morning of February 21, we will join several of our sister organizations in a march from the Monument to the Mother to the Zócalo of the city of Oaxaca, where we will set up a camp for an indefinite period of time.

We demand justice for the comrades murdered, disappeared, imprisoned and tortured during the 2006 conflict and demand punishment for the guilty parties. Jail for Ulises Ruiz and Jorge Franco Vargas. We denounce the presence in our towns of different paramilitary groups that are violating our civil and political rights. This is the change promised to the people by the Gabino Cue government: militarization. And we also denounce the complicity of the Gabino Cue government with the transnational corporations that are imposing their mega-projects by hook or by crook without the slightest concern for the irreversible damage to the natural environment and to people’s health. These include the mining at San José del Progreso, the super highway from Oaxaca to the coast, and the La Reina dam and reservoir, among others.

In view of the above, we make the following demands of the government:

An end to the militarization of our indigenous peoples
Respect for the autonomy of our peoples
Freedom for our political prisoners
Cancelation of arrest warrants against our comrades
Live presentation of all disappeared comrades

CODEDI-Xanica

February 20, 2012

To the news media
To human rights organizations
To social organizations
To indigenous peoples
To the Other Campaign

As we return to Oaxaca City with tired bodies and aching feet, we firmly hope that peace will come to our people some day. We will continue to denounce the impunity that we’ve been subjected to. The decision of our people remains firm and our demands are the same as they were before: JUSTICE, jail for the criminals, and peace for our land.

Sisters and brothers, now more than ever we are clear that we can’t expect anything good from those at the top. They order death and destruction for plain decent people and give handfuls of money to thugs who say they are leaders but subjugate the people through force of arms.

In our region, comrades, there are sinister people who have used terror to dominate the majority of our sisters and brothers. We know very well that expressing the slightest disagreement with our supposed leaders is motive for harsh physical and economic punishments. That’s what happened to us when we spoke out. It was the pretext for killing 22 people of our organization, and to date, justice has still not been done.

This is why these criminals who are well-known to both state and government officials, continue to impose their will on us and take human lives when they see fit. This doesn’t discourage us and it doesn’t break our spirit. We want to tell the people who have walked a long way and experienced the hardships well-known to people at the bottom and on the left that we will continue with our peaceful mobilization until PEACE reigns among our peoples and the criminals, along with their bosses, are where they belong. We ask those of you here in Oaxaca who are not yet sympathizers with our struggle to approach us to learn more about what moves us to keep on protesting. And when you do, you’ll realize that we’re struggling for life itself. We’re struggling to keep on being who we are, but above all, to preserve that part of history that it is up to us Triquis to keep alive, so that this country called Mexico can stay on its feet despite so many years of being ruled in the interests of the owners of money by henchmen who repress and exploit those of us who have nothing.

posted February 11, 2012
http://municipioautonomodesanjuancopala.wordpress.com/

x carolina

Now it’s back to the streets, or rather the mountain highways of Oaxaca for the Triqui comrades expelled under fire from the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala on September 27, 2010. After 15 days of frustrating, deceitful negotiations, the Gabino Cue government was unwilling to keep its promise of guaranteeing a safe return to their homes. So the displaced Triquis announced an 80-mile march-caravan for Tuesday, February 7, from Yucudaá to the City of Oaxaca to take their demands for social justice to the forum of public opinion.

They want to go home. They want justice. They want to live in peace.

Carmen calls down several functionaries of the Gabino Cue government in Yosoyuxi, Oaxaca, the night of February 4: “For a year and a half we’ve withstood hardships in the encampment in Oaxaca City. And what have you done about it? Not a thing… And what about Antonio Cruz Pájaro? Have you arrested him? Have you locked up the killers? The truth is, you’re protecting them…We still haven’t been able to go back to San Juan Copala. Why should we have to go through all this? We don’t need it ––hunger, cold, being kept out of our town, our homes, the places that belongs to us…But you’re not going to scare us or intimidate us. We’re keeping on. We’re going back to San Juan Copala no matter what. Nobody here will say no. Why? Because it’s our obligation to return. Why? Because that’s where we’re from…What we want is justice and a return to San Juan Copala”.

I got to Yosoyuxi, 3.5 miles away from San Juan Copala, in a bus with around 20 members of the Labor Sector of the Other Campaign, independent activists and reporters, and Triqui women and children from the Mexico City encampment on Thursday, February 2. The trip took longer than we thought because we had a blowout somewhere near Cuautla, but amazingly enough, we managed to wake up a guy at one o’clock in the morning who was nice enough to put on a spare while some of us slept, others talked, and some watched a beautiful red moon go down.

Some of the comrades had participated in the previous effort to go into Copala, originally scheduled for January 20 and actually begun on January 26. After a heavy media campaign that criminalized solidarity activists as outside agitators, David Venegas was arrested on January 29 for the crime of showing his solidarity, as a pretext for hindering the return of the displaced people to San Juan Copala.

We got there in the middle of further negotiations with the government in the City of Oaxaca over precautionary measure for guaranteeing a save return, which this time would be gradual. Since there’s no internet signal in Yosoyuxi and it was decided that it wouldn’t be a good idea to look for a connection in another town due to the tense situation in the area, we spent two days blocking the highway, waiting for information, talking to people to find out more about the situation, and enjoying delicious tamales, pozole, and other chili-hot stews, thanks to the women who were always offering us something to eat.

Yosoyuxi is beautiful –– a community surrounded by green mountains with plenty of water. You can see small corn fields; gardens with bean, tomato, chili and radish plants; and fruit trees bearing oranges, grapefruit, and bananas. Sometimes what appears to be a lemon is really a grapefruit, and what looks like a mandarin orange is something else. To a certain degree, the economy is self-sufficient, but there are dire needs that are not met and a lack of money to buy basic necessities. The community has electric light, drinking water, a grade school, and a health center, but medical personnel only arrive once a month or every two months. Lots of people go to other cities to find work and there’s heavy migration to the North of the country and to the United States. With luck, a migrant worker can send enough money home to build a house or buy a car, but if he’s captured without papers and sent home, the whole family is in debt until loans for the “coyote” and other expenses are paid.

Timo’s name is constantly heard. For years, Timoteo Alejandro Ramírez was a strong advocate of the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala and of self-initiated projects in Yosoyuxi. He was shot and hacked to death with a machete by paramilitaries on May 20, 2010, along with his wife Cleriberta Castro, leaving 10 orphans and a legacy of resistance.

A total of 40 orphans are one of the products of the repression against the autonomous people of Copala. Several of them are now found among the children who give life to the Yosoyuxi community, which has become a new base for displaced people after the camp in the arcade outside the Government building was lifted just before Christmas. They run around, invent games, help with a number of tasks, and enthusiastically participate in protests, as we see in this video shot on January 29: http://youtu.be/tyTqkOzjMFE

On Friday, February 3, the current spokespersons for the displaced people, Marcos Albino y Reyna Martínez, traveled from the City of Oaxaca to share what had happened in the latest negotiations. Cue had signed an agreement that allowed a group of 10 displaced people to go into San Juan Copala to talk to people now living there and inspect their houses, with the possibility that 25 families could return that very day, followed by groups of 25 in the following days. In the discussion in Yosoyuxi, a trap in the agreement was pointed out, which left the decision in the hands of the people who now control Copala. Others thought that even so, it was advance that the Governor had signed the agreement and that if people could go back now and resume their lives, they wouldn’t be dependent on international processes that take years to resolve. Some people had high hopes of being protected by the precautionary measures, while others were more skeptical.

One comrade who had lived in Copala all his life and had witnessed the electrification of the area by Lázaro Cárdenas in the ‘60s told us about his dream of going back home, setting up a small store, and participating in self-help projects to better the community. Others were packing their bags.

At 9 o’clock in the morning, Saturday February 4, a group of nine women and one man were waiting for government vehicles that would take them to San Juan Copala. About a hundred community people, along with the solidarity activists who were prohibited from going into Copala, waited on the highway. The cars arrived at 9:45 and it was presumed that the meeting would begin at 10 o’clock in the Municipal Presidency, also known as “the Agency”.

The Sun was going down when the women and Marcos got back to the highway. High hopes vanished as soon as the women began to tell about what had happened. The supposed assembly was presided over by none other than Antonio Cruz Merino, the son of Antonio Cruz García, alias “Toño Pájaro”, the Ubisort leader responsible for the violent expulsion under gunfire of the autonomous people of San Juan Copala among many other crimes; Alberta Martínez de Jesús, the wife of Julio Cesar Martínez Morales, the perpetrator of the murders of Jyri Jaakkola and Beatriz Cariño; and Belén Cruz Merino, daughter of Antonio Cruz García, among other Ubisort paramilitaries. More than 200 people participated in the meeting, most of whom weren’t even from San Juan Copala, but were brought in by the MULT organization from the communities of Rastrojo, Ladera, Coyuchi, Río Metates and Ojo de Agua, among others.

One compañera commented: “I planted an orange grove before they ran us out of Copala a year and a half ago. Today I saw that it is bearing fruit, but it’s not for us. It’s for the them –the ones who now control Copala. I feel really sad.”

Another compañera said: “They went after our main spokespeople. First they accused Marcos of carrying a pistol. We said, ‘Marcos go up there and tell them to search you.’ When he took off his jacket it was clear that all he was carrying was his radio and a camera. They went after Reyna, too. They’re accusing her of killing Anastasio [the violent UBISORT gunman Anastasio Juárez] in July of 2010 and they say she can’t go back to Copala”.

Another said: “We demand that they arrest Toño Pájaro. While he’s loose, we’ll never be able to safely go back to Copala. But they’re demanding amnesty for all those paramilitary killers before they’ll accept our return.”

And another concluded: “The worthless government wants the MULT vote because they know there are a lot of them and only a few of us.”

For several hours around a hundred people crowded around a small TV to watch a video of the whole “assembly.”

On Sunday, February 5, an assembly was held in Yosoyuxi, where peopled decided to respond immediately to the collusion between the Gabino Cue government and the paramilitaries with a long march-caravan from Yukudaá to the City of Oaxaca.

Ernestina explained what had happened in San Juan Copala:

“When we arrived, there were more than two hundred people, most of them women, there in the Agency hall. Maybe fifteen of then were from San Juan Copala and the rest had been brought in from other towns. They didn’t know anything about the problem we’ve faced there.

The ones in charge were Ubisort women, relatives of Toño Pájaro, and his son, too.

The government had signed an agreement saying 25 families could enter, beginning today, and then other groups of 25 would follow. There are 110 displaced families in all. But those in charge of the meeting didn’t respect the agreement and the government representatives didn’t do a thing. They said: “No, you can’t come back to this town.” Who are they to give us permission to go into our own homes?”

Then they went straight after Reyna. The killer Julio Cesar’s wife said: “We don’t want to see you around here, Reyna, because you did us a lot of harm. We don’t even want to see your face.”

They said the rest of us could go back, but only two families every two weeks. We can’t accept that because it would be too dangerous. We know all too well who they are and what they did to us. They shot at all of us, men, women, and even children and old people. Ubisort women tried to kill me in my own house. We couldn’t even venture out into the street because they shot at us like we were grains of corn or beans. Thank God we’re all right, but other comrades were killed, wounded, and raped.

But they said they didn’t do any of that. Instead, we’re the ones who’ve done damage to them. Then Antonio Cruz Merino said, “Brothers and sisters, please. You shouldn’t mistrust us because we’re not going to do anything to you. What’s done is done. Let’s move on ahead. Let’s sign a peace agreement.” But we know all he said was false.

They didn’t let us go into our houses. They also said we couldn’t go into the church, but at last we did. We also went into the grade school. It’s really sad because it’s really in bad shape. The whole town is run down. It’s not like it was before.

They finally said five families could return each week, but we didn’t sign anything. We didn’t say yes or no. We said we’d have to consult with our people. Now we’ve made the decision to go on a long walk to Oaxaca City, and that’s what we’re going to do.

They haven’t scared me. On the contrary, they insult us and threaten us because they’re afraid of us. Why? Because we’ve spoken out. Our eyes are wide open. We’re not the same women we were before.”

Sisters, brothers, painful is the path of return to our village from which we were displaced by the rancor and hate of those who from afar send the owners of power to our region, but we know well that reconciliation can and should come to our lands. More than 500 years of resisting exploitation, repression and misery have given the indigenous of this country the wisdom necessary to resolve their problems through the word. It is because of this that the displaced communicate to those who have accompanied us that we are doing everything in our power to put into action the Triqui word. We are sure that this will help to solve our differences, that it will ensure peace always exists in our region, but we want to state very clearly that we are not asking for impunity for anyone, those who commit crimes by following the orders of the powerful should and have to pay, as our lands have been dyed with blood spilled by indigenous who have exchanged their dignity for a few coins or for promises of positions of power (in the state congress, for example) but we will speak of these individuals another time in a more detailed manner and we will do it with names and evidence.

Today we merely want to address you to tell you that we are doing everything in our power to find the path to peace through the word and we want to ask for your fraternal solidarity, which you have always shown us, so that today more than ever, the flower of the word does not die.

It is also necessary to mention that this process of returning has been delayed in part due to the wickedness of some government officials who see a benefit to their own personal interests in this conflict, or at least a means to enhance their standing using our pain. We also recognize, as it is part of our indigenous history and dignity to recognize those who act in a correct manner, that there are officials who have taken on the task of finding the way to a solution where no one’s dignity is injured and who oppose our return taking this into account and being entirely convinced that the only way to resolve our differences is through dialog. Despite the fact that on Thursday, January 26, when we left the city of Oaxaca the state government blocked the caravan of displaced families and solidarity groups on several occasions, we accepted the state of Oaxaca’s proposal that on Sunday, January 29, a group of 20 women would enter San Juan Copala to dialog with those who call themselves authorities and to convince them through the word that all the displaced may enter our village. In no way will we accept that the families return in groups of five as they suggest. Near Yosoyuxi, the site of caravan’s location, while awaiting the officials in charge of transporting the group of women, Oscar Cruz Lopez, the Deputy Secretary of Political Affairs, in an arrogant and rude manner told our representatives that the Copala authorities only agreed that there would be ten women. This created discord, but in the eagerness to move forward, it was accepted on the part of our group.

Unsatisfied, this individual who calls himself an official, ordered Cesar Alfaro, State Police Commissioner, to arbitrarily and unjustly detain our compañero in solidarity, David Venegas, in order to later tell all those present that if they wanted to enter Copala they would do so without any security because he was leaving. There is the evidence that this man had orders to lay waste to all that we had worked and agreed to on our part with the State Government Human Rights Commissioner and the Secretary of Indigenous Affairs. Since that time, many denouncements have been made by those who sympathize with our struggle, something that we look gratefully upon, but it is necessary to mention that as of this statement, the Communal Autonomous Council of San Juan Copala, which represents the displaced and the communities pushing for autonomy in the Triqui region, has not put forward its word as the conditions did not exist in order to do so. We thank those who have raised their voice in protest for us and have done so in good faith, and we say to them that this is our true word and to those, abusing our limitations, send statements in our name to alleviate their ideological frustrations, we ask them in a fraternal manner for respect and common sense, as a misinterpreted word could place in serious danger those who will live permanently in a community where wounds are very recent, but above all in a region where many criminals operate with impunity.

Finally, we inform you that in the desire to advance our struggle in a peaceful manner we accepted the reestablishment of the dialog that was put off on January 29 and that it is in this manner that an agreement with the federal and state governments will be reached. And to those who present themselves as the authorities of our village, on Saturday, February 4 at 10am the commission of ten women will enter, to dialog and search for ways to arrive at the necessary agreements to allow for return, putting above all the dignity of our movement and justice for those who tried to reach this dream of freedom and died in the attempt.

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Translated by Scott Campbell from text at:
http://www.proyectoambulante.org/?p=15106

On Tuesday afternoon David Venegas was released from police custody after his arrest last Sunday. Despite the efforts of Governor Gabino Cue and the corporate media to criminalize him, authorities finally had to admit that they had no evidence against him, making it clear that his arrest was a ploy to disrupt the return to San Juan Copala of the displaced people.

The displaced Triquis are giving the government more time to keep its promise of establishing safe conditions for a return to San Juan Copala. The group of ten Triqui women representing the displaced people have decided to wait until 2 pm Thursday afternoon to go into San Juan Copala and talk with ten representatives of the community now living there. Government officials have agreed to another meeting on precautionary measures beforehand. It is scheduled for Wednesday morning. There is a call for national and international support. A new caravan will leave Mexico City for Copala Wednesday night.

In a taped interview with Proyecto Ambulante on Monday, January 30, Marcos Albino explains the situation:

“….Last Saturday, we had made an agreement with the government that 10 women were going into San Juan Copala to talk to people inside. Their safe entry had been arranged. But on Sunday everything fell through. The government sent different representatives and went so far as to arrest David Venegas, so that we’d have to focus on freeing him and stop concentrating on the return. But now we’ve given them more time. If they don’t keep their promises to arrest certain paramilitaries and establish safe conditions by Thursday at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, the compañeras will go on into Copala even without government support. On Wednesday we want discussions about the precautionary measures. We aren’t going to provoke anything, but we’re going to keep on resisting and trying to create safe conditions for the compañeras.

We’ve received information that the community inside San Juan Copala was expecting the women and that they had cleaned up the houses of the displaced people and were ready to welcome them.

I think the government officials didn’t want to resolve the conflict. Instead, they wanted to create more problems between Triqui sisters and brothers, the way the State has always done, the way some functionaries and the local power bosses have always done. But the information we got was not that they were waiting for us. The information we got was that they didn’t want to see us….

Some people find it hard to understand that this movement is never going to be sold out in the negotiations. We’re taking it step by step to create safe conditions.

Today we heard…that a peaceful attitude exists in the community and that the authorities are inviting the women to come in, saying that they’ll be safe and that there won’t be a confrontation….

We’re trying to evaluate the situation as we go along. What we want is justice. We know from our past experience that agreements can be broken and people can betray us, and we know what paramilitary violence is from our own experience. We hope we can expect national and international solidarity, and that people will stay tuned to the situation and express their support. We want to resolve this peacefully. We want justice and an end to impunity and the complicity of government officials with the killers”.