Communiqué from VOCAL on the Armed Attack and Mobilization in Oaxaca City

April 30, 2010

Communiqué update:

On the armed attack on the Support and Solidarity Caravan to the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala, Oaxaca

We want to let you know that DAVID VENEGAS REYES is with us and is just fine, and that NOE BAUTISTA JIMENEZ is hospitalized at the IMSS, where his family and friends who are taking care of him have been harassed and intimidated. We have denounced the ongoing physical and moral attacks against our comrade.

On the APPO mobilization and denunciation in the city of Oaxaca

At the march called by comrades in some of the APPO organizations, we started out from the Fountain of the 7 Regions with grief, rage, and righteous indignation to show our support for the process of building autonomy in San Juan Copala, and to demand punishment for the murders committed by the paramilitary Union of Social Welfare of the Triqui Region (UBISORT).

Our purpose was to make a public demand for much needed justice in Copala, and to publicly accuse those responsible for the brutal ambush of the Caravan of Observation and Support for the Autonomous Municipality. The attack was a blow to the autonomy of the peoples, and we can’t allow the repression to continue. This has been the situation since 2006 and before, when repression has come down on peoples organizing and struggling to build a process of governing ourselves with autonomy, dignity, and peace, but also with justice, while the governments do what they will with total impunity.

Another key demand of the march was punishment for the killers of our comrades Alberta Cariño and Jyri Antero Jakkola.