CODEDI: Xanica announces actions for justice, freedom and autonomy

To the people in general
To all social, national and international organizations
To the news media

Once again, we the men, women, children and elders of the Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Rights (CODEDI), will set out from our communities of Santiago Xanica, San Felipe Lachillo, Santa María Coixtepec, San Antonio Ozolotepec, Buena Vista Loxicha, Tierra Blanca Loxicha, and Las Cuevas Santo Domingo, this February 20, 2012.

We will engage in the following activities: a political rally outside the criminal court at Santa María Huatulco at 9:00 am on February 20; a rally outside the criminal court and regional prison at San Pedro Pochutla at 12:00 noon the same day; and a rally in the center of the Miahuatlan District at 8:00 pm. On the morning of February 21, we will join several of our sister organizations in a march from the Monument to the Mother to the Zócalo of the city of Oaxaca, where we will set up a camp for an indefinite period of time.

We demand justice for the comrades murdered, disappeared, imprisoned and tortured during the 2006 conflict and demand punishment for the guilty parties. Jail for Ulises Ruiz and Jorge Franco Vargas. We denounce the presence in our towns of different paramilitary groups that are violating our civil and political rights. This is the change promised to the people by the Gabino Cue government: militarization. And we also denounce the complicity of the Gabino Cue government with the transnational corporations that are imposing their mega-projects by hook or by crook without the slightest concern for the irreversible damage to the natural environment and to people’s health. These include the mining at San José del Progreso, the super highway from Oaxaca to the coast, and the La Reina dam and reservoir, among others.

In view of the above, we make the following demands of the government:

An end to the militarization of our indigenous peoples
Respect for the autonomy of our peoples
Freedom for our political prisoners
Cancelation of arrest warrants against our comrades
Live presentation of all disappeared comrades

CODEDI-Xanica

February 20, 2012