Press Release: William Bradley Roland Killed by Oaxaca Paramilitaries

William Bradley Roland, U.S. Journalist/Cameraman, Killed by Oaxaca Paramilitaries – Killer Identified – Actions Being Planned in U.S.

October 28, 2006

Contact:
Beka Economopoulos, (917) 202-5479
Brandon Jourdan, (646) 342-8169
Eric Laursen, (917) 806-6452

William Bradley Roland, aka Brad Will, a U.S. journalist and cameraman, was shot and killed yesterday in Oaxaca, Mexico, by paramilitaries affiliated with the PRI, the former Mexican ruling party. Will was in Oaxaca covering the continued resistance of teachers and other workers against the PRI-controlled government of the State of Oaxaca. According to reports from New York City Independent Media Center and La Jornada, Will, 36, was shot at the Santa Lucia Barricade from a distance of 30-40 meters in the pit of the stomach by plainclothes paramilitaries and died while en route to the Red Cross.

Centro de Medios Libres in Mexico City reports that they have identified his killer as a paramilitary named Pedro Carmona, ex-president of Felipe Carrillo Puerto de Santa Lucia del Camino, a colonia in Oaxaca.

At last report, Will was one of five people who died in the last day, along with 17 wounded, as paramilitaries and federal police poured in to retake the city, according to Centro de Medias Libres. The city had been in the hands of the workers for five months. Will is the first American to be killed in the months-long confrontation. A longtime journalist and activist, he covered land occupations in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., direct actions and rebellions in Argentina and Ecuador, land occupations in Brazil, and anti-privatization struggles in Bolivia. He was a much-beloved figure in the global justice movement in the U.S. and leaves behind many grieving friends.

Friends of Brad in the U.S. will be calling actions in the next day to demand that the U.S. State Department press the Mexican government to investigate Brad’s murder and address the terroristic regime that made it possible. Additionally, they will press for solidarity in the U.S. with the Mexican movement for social justice that Brad gave his life to document in Oaxaca.

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Killers of Brad Will

the named killers. Source: Reporters San Frontiers

They are municipal policeman Juan Carlos Soriano (on the left in the photo, in a red T-shirt and holding an automatic firearm), municipal personnel chief Manuel Aguilar (centre) and public security director Abel Santiago Zárate, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which controls the state government.

sources: https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/10/27/18323988.php
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/10/354501.html?c=on#c159958

One comment

  1. Ya estamos artos de tantos abusos de parte de las autoridades Mexicanas. La gente vive aterrada en sus casas por el crimen que viven a diario con los narcotraficantes y los Zetas y otros grupos de criminales. aunque las autoridades saben quienes son no hacen nada por detenerlos .. todos los Mexicanos que vivimos del otro lado del pais… nos fuimos por lo mismo porque en Mexico no vez justicia… los governantes son unos incompetentes, rateros, abusivos, prepotentes, asesinos etc etc….

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