Brutal Repression Against a Professor in the Magonist Zapatista Alliance

To the national and international media.
To the people of Oaxaca and the peoples of the world.

19 de julio de 2007 – Magonist Zapatista Alliance (AMZ) writes: We are writing this letter from Organizaciones Indias por los Derechos Humanos de Oaxaca (OIDHO, Oragnisation of indigenous peoples for Human Rights in Oaxaca), Comité por la Defensa de los Derechos Indígenas de Santiago Xanica (CODEDI-Xanica, Comitte for the defence of indigenous rights in Santiago Xanica), Colectivo Autónomo Magonista (CAMA, Autonomous Magonist Collective); women and men of the Alianza Magonista Zapatista (AMZ, Magonist Zapatista Alliance), to all our comrades, both in the country and internationally, we ask you to organize urgent actions to oppose fascism in the state of Oaxaca.

We want you to know that:

On Monday 16th of July there were actions organized against the commercialized version of the Guelaguetza [the traditional festival of giving and sharing celebrated by the peoples of Oaxaca dating back to the times of the Toltecs], that is being promoted by the tourism business and the bloodstained government of Ulises Ortiz Ruiz (URO). It consisted of a march and an alternative Guelaguetza, a peoples’ one. Regardless of the march having already taken place peacefully, the celebration and dances were brutally attacked by the police, which arrested 74 of those taking part in it and wounded more than 40 (according to APPO and other organizations involved in it).

During this repression our comrade Emeterio Merino Cruz Vasquez, a member of Codedi-Xanica, one of the founding organizations of APPO, was badly wounded and brutally beaten by elements of the military wearing the uniform of the local police force of Oaxaca. Our comrade is a teacher in Santa Maria Coixtepec, and has been diagnosed with internal bursting of the bowels and a fractured skull affecting the brain. He is being treated at the San Antonio Covotepec Intensive Care Hospital in Oaxaca. We hold the bloodthirsty URO responsible of such a shameful brutality, and all the corrupted institutions of Mexico, which keep supporting him time after time.

We also want to denounce that our comrades of Codedi-Xanica and AMZ, Abraham Ramírez Vásquez, Noel and Juventino García Cruz, who have been political prisoners since the 13th of June 2005 at the San Pedro Pochutla jail, have been continually subjected to humiliations, breaches of their human rights and violence from their first day in jail. Last 12th of July, our comrade Abraham was suddenly transferred to solitary confinement because, according to the jail management, he was ill. The truth is that this is a punishment for his struggle to defend the rights of political and common prisoners, and mainly because of his denunciation of the involvement of the director in petty drug smuggling into the prison.

In a similar way many comrades from OIDHO suffer constant repression and intimidation from the authorities, very often through arrest warrants issued against them, as the one pending on Felipa Cruz Zaragoza. We want to stress that in every occasion our comrades have kept a committed and consequent participation in the movement of the peoples of Oaxaca [and this is the reason for this harrassment].

Free all political prisoners!
Bring the disappeared back to us, alive!
Put the bloodthirsty URO in jail!
Stop the repression in Oaxaca!

In fraternity, members of the Alianza Magonista Zapatista:
Organizaciones India por los Derechos Humanos de Oaxaca (OIDHO)
Comité por la Defensa de los Derechos Indígenas de Santiago Xanica (CODEDI)
Colectivo Autónomo Magonista (CAMA) .

17th of July 2007
There can be no democracy without freedom, ¡Viva Tierra y Libertad!

Our comrade, Emeterio Merino Cruz Vasquez, is fine when arrested.

Has already been hit.

The beating goes on.

Left nearly dying.

18 de Julio de 2007, Noticias de Oaxaca

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source of original: espora.org/amz
source of translation: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/07/376694.html