Oaxaca is calling for US to get Organized

Oaxaca Says US Needs to Get Organized!

Justice writes: People of Oaxaca are looking to the North- they are looking to New York City! They are looking to NYC Indymedia. They are saying that since Brad’s death the repression has been amped up considerably. As many as 5 people a day are disappearing. The human rights groups are overwhelmed. All of the APPO leaders are in hiding. There are hit lists with their pictures, names and addresses on them. They can’t sleep in their homes. The church has denied them sanctuary. One of the only safe places is inside the University, but that is fired on at least every other day. A student was hit just the other day. There is a sustained campaign of violence against journalists. PRI Pirate radio has made statements calling for killings of more foreign journalists. People of Oaxaca see Brad’s death as an excuse for the increased repression. They are correct.

People in Oaxaca want to know what Brad’s people are up to?

We must focus on the facts of Brad’s death. Brad Will’s Assassins, are identified by El Universal as Mexican government officials: Juan Carlos Soriano Velasco, a Oaxacan police officer known as “the Grasshopper”; Manuel Aguilar Oaxacan city personnel director; public safety chief Avel Santiago Zárate, and Pedro Carmona the mayor of Felipe Carrillo Puerto de Santa Lucia del Camino.

The Mexican Government killed Brad Will. His own video tape proves this fact.

The power of this truth can’t be underestimated. Lets not forget Bill Stewart the reporter for ABC news who was shot by government forces in Nicaragua in 1979. His cameraman recorded the killing. The video footage shocked colleagues at ABC, and it and the other US networks ran the footage in their evening news broadcasts. Over the next few days the footage was broadcast repeatedly in the United States and around the world. This horrified the American public and ultimately caused the US government to turn openly against Somoza’s tottering regime. If Brad had worked for ABC this would have already happened! It is our job to make his story known! The press is already excluding Brads murder from their reports about Oaxaca.

The media and the Mexican government has eliminated the fact that Brads killers were identified as government officials. His primary shooter is a PRI mayor, but this fact is not being reported by mass media. They are saying that Oaxaca is ungovernable and therefore “law and order must be restored.” This line came right from our own State Department. Brad’s death is the new pretext for an immense suppression campaign on a civil society. As we know the Mexican Federal government has been using PFP to repress civil society instead of using small tactical teams to capture the murderous PRI officials that are acting unlawfully injuring kidnapping disappearing and murdering reporters, teachers, students, and other civilians. The Mexican government has not exhibited any intent to restore law and order other than that of a murderous and corrupt government.

Brads identified killers and their cohorts run freely with impunity perpetrating more violence.

The US should be outraged!

We have to clearly put forth these facts on a massive scale with a sustained campaign immediately. We can’t underestimate public outrage and political pressure from the North to stop injuries and deaths to the people of Oaxaca.

We must act now to stop the deaths detentions and disappearances!

If Ruiz is allowed to complete his term through December the major contracts he has made with multi-national corporations be in full effect. If he is forced out the contracts will be null and void.

We must act now to support the people of Oaxaca.

The pressure must be applied precisely.

We must expose the hypocrisy of the Mexican government as well as the US government and the media’s complicity.

Lets give people really concrete goals to focus on.

Lets organize the facts and present them clearly and predominately on nyc.indymedia.org and friendsofbradwill.org then refocus public attention towards those facts, towards Brad’s video.

To memorialize Brad is to Further the Struggle he was fighting for:

He was there to support a people’s movement to make the invisible visible.

He saw the potential for true autonomy to grow in Oaxaca and other South American indigenous communities.

Protest for the sake of protest wont be enough for Brad. He would want to see something productive come out of it.

He paid the ultimate price to get the message out of the people of Oaxaca. Lets honor Brad by helping continue the ripple of information while providing support for Oaxacans.

Brad reminded people what being alive is supposed to be like.

He walked the talk.

Die ins and protest focusing on the negative need an element that is about the life, potential, and reasons of what people are dying for. To creatively include the positive in any civil disobedience or street theater would be really powerful.

How do we create this?

Are there things that people can do that will inspire others- that will inform others more about the whole story? That will force the media to represent the story factually and completely?

While the Ruiz government is perpetrating violence, as Brad has uncovered, there will be no way for justice to be served. While Mexico’s federal government is supporting and enabling the ousted PRI government justice will not be served.

We support the rights of the self-determination.

As North Americans we are outraged at the Mexican government’s killing of Brad Will and the shootings and beatings of other journalists! We are outraged at the disappearances detentions and killings of other innocent teachers students and citizens!

Mexican government hands off Oaxaca!

————————–

We should also organize a massive case to uncover the level of surveillance and disruption of NY activist community. As we know Brad was on a list during the WEF in 2002 of “Anarchist Threats”. Between that and the Green Scare, as friends and colleagues of Brad’s we should all assume that we are subject to a massive campaign by the US government. What did the US government know about Brad’s travel to Mexico and other Latin American countries? Lets expose this!

Peace Love Justice!

By Justice justice@riseup.net

—

source: http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/79333.html