UPDATE: At 6:50 PM all 24 detainees were released!!!! At 9:24 am, Reyna Martinez Flores, a representative of the displaced women from San Juan Copala was detained today along with 23 other individuals from different independent collectives in Oaxaca, including Vocal who has released a communique about the action.
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Please write to these authorities to demand justice and the immediate release of the people arrested: Lic. Gabino Cué Monteagudo, Governor of Oaxaca gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx Luis Ugartechea, Mayor of Oaxaca luis.ugartechea@municipiodeoaxaca.gob.mx
UPDATED COMMUNIQUE
Today October 2 police intimidate and repress comrades building spaces for the people
To the peoples of Oaxaca
To women and men standing in solidarity in Mexico and the world
To the news media
To human rights organizations
Today on the 2 of October, as we had previously stated, we took over the foundry lot. This brought on the kind of repression commonly used by corrupt, repressive governments to intimidate, threaten, beat and jail people who are peacefully mobilizing. In this case people from the neighborhoods and other free people were generating organizing spaces for the people of Oaxaca in order to be able to come together in places formerly used by those in power seeking to enrich themselves with what now belongs and has always belonged to the people.
Around 8 o’clock this morning, we were there in the space just taken over by different collectives, organizations, and indigenous peoples, such as the Mixes, members of the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala, and people of VOCAL, Hormiga Libertaria, CASOTA and the APPO. While we were organizing different activities for the space, doing radio broadcasts about what was happening and letting people know what this Okupation is about, three men in street clothes who looked like bodyguards came up to us and told us we’d better get out of there in less than an hour or they were going to call the hired thugs from the UABJO High School # 1. We asked them to explain these threats, but at about 8:30 am three pick-up trucks full of Municipal Police officers pulled up and began to harass and threaten those of us who were occupying the lot. According to them the bodyguards work for Manuel Maza Sanchez.
More Municipal Police agents began to arrive, but these were wearing ski-masks and carrying long arms and pushing everybody around who got in their way. Even though we are sure that the lot does not belong to Mr. Manuel Maza Sanchez, we decided to to try to dialogue about the matter outside. Meanwhile, more Municipal Police reinforcements came up, as well as another white truck carrying police agents wearing ski-masks. The truck bore no insignia, so we had no way of knowing which police force it was from, but the license plate number was RV50197.
At approximately 9:30 am the physical attacks against us began. The only things our comrades had with them were a video camera and a digital camera, and these were taken from them at the time of their arrest.
More than 24 men and women were violently arrested and some were beaten by several Municipal Police agents. They were then loaded onto trucks and taken to the offices of the Municipal Police Department. This much we know, because a few comrades were able to let us know what was happening. But as of now, they haven’t been presented by any police agency. They are being held incommunicado and not even allowed to speak to their lawyers to verify their physical and psychological state.
We hold Mr. Manuel Maza Sanchez, the state government of Gabino Cué Monteagudo and the municipal government of Luis Ugartechea responsible for the physical well-being of our comrades.
We urgently call on all honorable people in Oaxaca to show your solidarity by going to the Municipal Police Department to demand the presentation and liberation of our comrades. We also ask you to stay alert for further news and to be ready to engage in solidarity actions.
Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom (VOCAL)
Oaxaca de Magón, October 2, 2011
FIRST COMMUNIQUE
Communiqué from VOCAL on intimidations and arrests today, October 2.
Today, October 2, police intimidate comrades building spaces for the people
To the peoples of Oaxaca
To women and men standing in solidarity in Mexico and the world
To the news media
To human rights groups
Today, October 2, 2011, we took over the space by the foundry two blocks down the hill from the wall as a form of peaceful mobilization and, above all, a way of generating organizing spaces for the people of Oaxaca. Here, people from the neighborhoods and other free people will be able to come together in spaces formerly used by those in power seeking to enrich themselves with what now belongs and has always belonged to the people.
The collective takeover and construction of this space is part of an effort to create spaces for gatherings and processes of creation, autonomy and freedom. From here, we will continue the struggle that peoples have always waged for the defense of the land, first against the invaders and then against powerful people who now hold positions of political and economic power.
The legitimate right to defend our territory and recover spaces that have lain idle as a result of capitalist greed is what moves us to collectively maintain this project in conjunction with other peoples’ organizations, collectives, and individuals who agree on the need to organize ourselves. Reason is on our side; the governments and the interests it defends can only keep us from pursuing this project through the use of force and violence.
At a time when campaign promises of peace and change are fading into repression and impunity, this action is a call to keep on organizing ourselves from below because, only with our peoples as a base, will we be able to achieve true, in-depth change in Oaxaca. The struggle continues by the peoples of Oaxaca for justice, freedom, peace, and dignity, as we generate new proposals and spaces, and learn from past experiences in order to firmly build, step by step, the road to our liberation.
Today, in the early morning hours, we were subjected to acts of intimidation at the occupied space located on Valerio Trujano Street in the Ampliación San Juan Colonia. First a heavyset person drove by in a Gray Atos, followed by police patrol truck # 605 with at least 7 policemen on board, and behind it, three individuals who appeared to be plainclothes policemen. At 8:30 in the morning we were surrounded by at least 7 patrol trucks of the Oaxaca City Police Force, accompanied by an unmarked van, which all appeared along with two people representing a Civil Protection functionary named Manuel Maza Sanchez. According to his police spokespersons, Maza Sánchez CLAIMS TO BE OWNER OF THIS PROPERTY THAT DOES NOT BELONG TO HIM. At the same time, a number of his hired thugs roamed around the site.
These people threatened to present a legal document that would set off the repression against those of us now occupying the lot. Special arrest threats were against our comrade David Venegas Reyes. It would be illegal for them to try to use the legal papers to carry out an arrest, since no case has been brought against him and there is no arrest warrant for him. We are sounding an alert for any possible act of aggression and hold Mr. Manuel Maza Sanchez responsible for anything that may happen.
This is an urgent call for solidarity from all people with dignity in Oaxaca to stay abreast of the situation and to be ready to engage in solidarity actions if the state government of Gabino Cué Monteagudo and the Municipal Government of Luis Ugartechea unleash repression against this effort at popular organization.
Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom (VOCAL)
Oaxaca de Magón, October 2, 2011
11:07 am UPDATE
At 9:24 am, 25 comrades were arrested and are now being held incommunicado in the Oaxaca City holding tank.
Please spread the word and show your solidarity.
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Please write to these authorities to demand justice and the immediate release of the people arrested:
Lic. Gabino Cué Monteagudo, Gobernador Constitucional del Estado de Oaxaca gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx
Luis Ugartechea, Presidente Municipal de la Ciudad de Oaxaca luis.ugartechea@municipiodeoaxaca.gob.mx
