2006 Oaxaca protests
Encyclopedia
The Mexican
state
of Oaxaca
was embroiled in a conflict that lasted more than seven months and resulted in at least seventeen deaths and the occupation of the capital city
of Oaxaca by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca
(APPO). The conflict emerged in May 2006 with the police responding to a strike
involving the local teachers' trade union
by opening fire on non-violent protests. It has since grown into a broad-based movement pitting the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) against the state's governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
. Protesters demand the removal or resignation of Ortiz, whom they accuse of political corruption
and acts of repression
. Multiple reports, including from international human rights
monitors, have accused the Mexican government of using death squad
s, summary execution
s, and even violating Geneva Conventions
standards that prohibit attacking and shooting at unarmed medics attending to the wounded.
One human rights observer has claimed over twenty-seven killed by the police violence. The dead include Brad Will
, Emilio Alonso Fabian, Jose Alberto Lopez Bernal, Fidel Sanchez Garcia, and Esteban Zurita Lopez.
in the Mexican
city of Oaxaca, Oaxaca
. 2006 was the 25th consecutive year that Oaxaca's teachers had struck. Previously, the protests had generally lasted for one to two weeks and had resulted in small raises for teachers. The 2006 strike began in protest of the low funding for teachers and rural schools in the state, but was prompted to additionally call for the resignation of the state governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
after 3000 police were sent to break up the occupation in the early morning of June 14, 2006. A street battle lasted for several hours that day, resulting in more than one hundred hospitalizations but no fatalities. Ortiz declared that he would not resign.
In response to the events of June 14, representatives of Oaxaca's state regions and municipalities, unions, non-governmental organizations, social organizations, cooperatives, and parents convened to form The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca
(APPO, from its Spanish name, Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca). On June 17 APPO reestablished encampments in the zocalo and declared itself to be the governing body of Oaxaca, plunging the city into a state of civil rebellion. Barricades were constructed across some streets in an effort to prevent further police raids. APPO began to seek country-wide solidarity with their movement and urged other states within Mexico to similarly organize popular assemblies at every level of social organization: neighborhoods, street blocks, unions, and towns. Various municipality offices across the state closed in unity. A popular mantra was, “No leader is going to solve our problems”.
Though APPO did not boycott the Mexican national elections
on July 2, Ulises Ruiz's Institutional Revolutionary Party
(PRI) suffered electoral defeat in Oaxaca, a state they have ruled for seventy years.
APPO did agree to boycott the annual Guelaguetza
festival in the final weeks of July. Protesters blocked access to the auditorium in which the festival is held using burned buses and miscellaneous trash, thus preventing the finalization of renovations to the facility. This action drew criticism due to the damage that some individuals did to the auditorium by starting fires and spray painting graffiti. Some of the graffiti said: "Tourists, go home! In Oaxaca we are not capitalists". As a result of the boycott, the government cancelled the celebration of the festival - in its stead the APPO held an alternative version of the cultural festival over the course of several days.
The action marked the lowest point of government for Ulises Ruiz, who subsequently left the State. He resided in Mexico City for a few months.
After a few weeks of absence, the APPO assumed control of the city and started implementing their own law, while confrontations with State Police escalated.
Those attacks on the APPO-controlled radio stations represented an escalation of violence in a conflict that (despite constant rumors of threats) had remained relatively peaceful since the June 14 police raid. In what was called a "cleanup operation", armed groups of men attacked the APPO's barricades during the nights. The individuals involved were identified as members of pro-PRI organizations and as plain-clothes local police. These attacks, combined with other shootings and assassinations, resulted in the first deaths associated with the conflict, in which six APPO supporters were killed.
The leader of Mazatecan APPO, Agustín Sosa, was elected mayor (presidente) of Huautla de Jiménez in November 2007, to a term beginning in January, 2008. Sosa is a longtime activist who spent many months in jail in 2004, accused of murder in the death of a protester (at the hands of the police) at a protest organized by Sosa. He bears no relation to Flavio Sosa
, the still imprisoned leader of APPO.
On October 27, 2006, Bradley Roland Will, a U.S.
Indymedia
journalist from New York
who had entered the country under a tourist visa
, was killed along with Professor Emilio Alonso Fabián and Esteban López Zurita, in what the Associated Press
has claimed was a "shootout" between protesters and a group of armed men. Photographs by Brad Will, however, demonstrate that the protesters were throwing rocks at the gunman. Photographs of Brad Will, after he was shot, show a man laying on the ground, surrounded by friends, and not the "armed gangs" that the Associated Press has reported. An autopsy by the Mexican government has concluded that "two shots" were fired at Brad Will, one from in front and one from behind (which, the government alleges, was fired by a protester). The body was never examined for blood clotting in the second wound, which would have demonstrated that it was "implemented" in the morgue. Brad Will's body was cremated. The family of Brad Will visited Mexico to demand justice from the court system, and upon hearing the accusation that their son was shot at close range by a protester, they called it "ridiculous, false, without substance, biased, and unconvincing." They also accused the District Attorney of falsifying evidence and acting in bad faith.
However, protesters claim the shooting was by a group of armed men against unarmed protesters. Oswaldo Ramírez, a photographer for Mexico City daily Milenio was also shot in the foot. Lizbeth Cana, attorney general of Oaxaca, claims the shooting of the protesters was provoked by the protesters themselves and that the armed men who engaged them were upset residents from the area. The U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Tony Garza
, however, claims the men may have been local police. El Universal
has identified some of the men as local officials. Protestors also allege that the men were police and not local residents. Indymedia claims from a first-hand witness that the man who shot Bradley Roland Will was an "urban paramilitary" member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party
. A local news organisation, Centro de Medios Libres, claims that from Will's recovered videotapes, they have found that Pedro Carmona
, a paramilitary who was the mayor of Felipe Carrillo Puerto
in Santa Lucía del Camino
, was the person who shot Bradley Roland Will. Another shooting took place later in the day outside the state prosecutors office, leading to three injuries.
An Associated Press report by Rebeca Romero (Dec 11, 2006, 12:33 AM (ET)) claims, "Most of the nine victims of the Oaxaca violence have been protesters who were shot by armed gangs..." One protester, in response to the massive denunciations of the state-controlled media, has said, "I saw a young boy shot in the leg, friends around me arrested left and right, bullets flying everywhere. The government needed someone to blame, and it came down heaviest on the people at the barricades, especially strategic barricades like Cinco Senores. They called us vandals and thieves and delinquents."
The death of Bradley Roland Will prompted President
Vicente Fox
to send federal police to Oaxaca after months of attempting to stay neutral in what he considered a local issue.
Numerous people have been detained; footage shows at least four being removed in a PFP Mi-17
helicopter.
The Mexican Episcopate Conference, an organization of the Catholic Church, supported the intervention of the Federal Police in the conflict.
written "to honor the memory" of slain journalist Brad Will and support "the Oaxacan people's efforts to establish a popular government that recognizes local traditions and values", was signed in early November by numerous academics and activists, including Noam Chomsky
, Naomi Klein
, Michael Moore
, Arundhati Roy
, Starhawk
and Howard Zinn
.
Thousands of protesters arrived in the following hours, surrounding the police and eventually forcing them to withdraw from the area surrounding the university. The APPO has also received permission by the university rector, through threats of violence, to broadcast their messages through the university radio, which they have used to criticise political parties, the PRI specifically. Opinions against the APPO are quickly taken off the air
After criticism by the private sector, political organizations and the press (specifically Grupo Formula's news anchor Denise Maerker) for his remarks towards the APPO the rector declared that he had requested respect for the rights of students and faculty and that a tentative operation by the Federal Police would not be a solution to the issue
branch lobby, blew out windows at Mexico's Tribunal Federal Electoral (Federal Electoral Tribunal), and damaged the auditorium at PRI headquarters. Other homemade bombs were placed in a second Scotiabank branch and in front of the chain restaurant Sanborns, but these were disabled before exploding. A phone call was placed to authorities shortly before midnight which warned of the bombings.
None of the exploded bombs resulted in injuries or death.
A coalition of five leftist guerrilla groups from Oaxaca
claimed responsibility for the blasts. There are no known ties between these guerrilla groups and Oaxacan protesters, and APPO members denied any involvement in or knowledge of the bombings.
On Saturday, and continuing on Sunday, November 26, fires were set by the protesters to numerous vehicles, and fires also destroyed or damaged four buildings housing government offices (including a tax and court office), one university building, and an office building of a local trade association. Three hotels were also attacked, and some local businesses were looted.
On Monday, November 27, 2006, the Chief of the Federal Police, Ardelio Vargas, stated that they would no longer have any more tolerance for the APPO. "There will be no more tolerance (...) those who go against the law will have their punishment. The warrants and orders of arrest are not ordered by the police, but by local and federal judges", he said.. Efforts have been made to follow through on these threats as movement leaders have been arrested and organizational offices have been raided. After indications that the APPO would assemble at the State University Campus following the weekends confrontations, Vargas said that "there will be no violation of the autonomy of the University"
In the following days the APPO removed the last of their barricades from the city and turned over control of the university radio station to the rector, citing lack of security. APPO leaders have gone into hiding, claiming a repressive crackdown by state authorities against those involved in the movement. The police have been accused of arresting teachers out of classrooms, beating detainees and false arrests.
was arrested by police on charges related to the barricades, vandalism and irregular detentions carried out by some protesters. Sosa's brother, Horacio, and two other men were also arrested on unspecified charges. Flavio Sosa's heavy-set, bearded presence became an emblem of APPO. After his arrest, the PRD
, through their speaker, Gerardo Fernandez Noroña, revealed that Sosa was a member of the party's National Council and said that this obliged them to assume Sosa's legal defense.
The following week, the federal police seized armament from Oaxaca's State Police and said that local forces were under investigation based on accusations of murder that the APPO made against them. The APPO reported that the federal government offered to not detain any other members of their movement..
which governed Mexico for most of the 20th century, but which now is a minority in a nation where political power resides in 3 main parties. However, the main power struggle is between the rightist National Action Party
and the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party
, leaving the Institutional Revolutionary Party
free to form coalitions with one of the two parties. Ruiz is a polemical figure whom opponents accuse of stealing his 2004 election, suppressing the freedom of the press, destruction of public spaces and historical monuments in the city, and repression of political opponents. Protestors argue that the constitution gives the central government the power under certain circumstances to remove a sitting governor; the Senate of the Republic
, voted on the issue and decided that those "special circumstances" are not to be found in Oaxaca.
As the conflict in Oaxaca has grown more intractable, outside pressure on Ruiz to resign has grown, but he has not shown signs of budging. The senate has blamed both the governor and the APPO for the violence that originated in the state , while the business group Coparmex
in the state of Puebla and the then Secretary of the Interior Carlos Abascal have called for his resignation or blamed him for the conflict. The APPO has made his resignation or removal their one non-negotiable demand before they will agree to end the conflict.
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
state
States of Mexico
The United Mexican States is a federal republic formed by 32 federal entities .According to the Constitution of 1917, the states of the federation are free and sovereign. Each state has their own congress and constitution, while the Federal District has only limited autonomy with a local Congress...
of Oaxaca
Oaxaca
Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
was embroiled in a conflict that lasted more than seven months and resulted in at least seventeen deaths and the occupation of the capital city
Oaxaca, Oaxaca
The city and municipality of Oaxaca de Juárez, or simply Oaxaca, is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of the same name . It is located in the Centro District in the Central Valleys region of the state, in the foothills of the Sierra Madre at the base of the Cerro del Fortín...
of Oaxaca by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca
Asamblea popular de los pueblos de Oaxaca
The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca , or simply the APPO, is an organization that was assembled in response to the political situation in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, first meeting in June 2006.-History:A public demonstration and a teacher's strike in May of every year had occurred every...
(APPO). The conflict emerged in May 2006 with the police responding to a strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
involving the local teachers' trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
by opening fire on non-violent protests. It has since grown into a broad-based movement pitting the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) against the state's governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
Ulises Ruiz Ortiz is a Mexican politician and former governor of the State of Oaxaca. He took office in 2004 as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party .- Election Controversy :...
. Protesters demand the removal or resignation of Ortiz, whom they accuse of political corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
and acts of repression
Repression
Repression may refer to:* Memory inhibition, the ability to filter irrelevant memories from attempts to recall* Political repression, the oppression or persecution of an individual or group for political reasons* Social repression...
. Multiple reports, including from international human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
monitors, have accused the Mexican government of using death squad
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
s, summary execution
Summary execution
A summary execution is a variety of execution in which a person is killed on the spot without trial or after a show trial. Summary executions have been practiced by the police, military, and paramilitary organizations and are associated with guerrilla warfare, counter-insurgency, terrorism, and...
s, and even violating Geneva Conventions
Geneva Conventions
The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...
standards that prohibit attacking and shooting at unarmed medics attending to the wounded.
One human rights observer has claimed over twenty-seven killed by the police violence. The dead include Brad Will
Brad Will
Bradley Roland Will was an American activist, videographer and amateur journalist affiliated with Indymedia. On October 27, 2006 during a labor dispute in the Mexican city of Oaxaca, Will suffered two gunshot wounds that resulted in his death....
, Emilio Alonso Fabian, Jose Alberto Lopez Bernal, Fidel Sanchez Garcia, and Esteban Zurita Lopez.
May and June 2006
In May 2006, a teachers' strike began in the ZócaloZócalo
The Zócalo is the main plaza or square in the heart of the historic center of Mexico City. The plaza used to be known simply as the "Main Square" or "Arms Square," and today its formal name is Plaza de la Constitución...
in the Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
city of Oaxaca, Oaxaca
Oaxaca, Oaxaca
The city and municipality of Oaxaca de Juárez, or simply Oaxaca, is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of the same name . It is located in the Centro District in the Central Valleys region of the state, in the foothills of the Sierra Madre at the base of the Cerro del Fortín...
. 2006 was the 25th consecutive year that Oaxaca's teachers had struck. Previously, the protests had generally lasted for one to two weeks and had resulted in small raises for teachers. The 2006 strike began in protest of the low funding for teachers and rural schools in the state, but was prompted to additionally call for the resignation of the state governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
Ulises Ruiz Ortiz is a Mexican politician and former governor of the State of Oaxaca. He took office in 2004 as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party .- Election Controversy :...
after 3000 police were sent to break up the occupation in the early morning of June 14, 2006. A street battle lasted for several hours that day, resulting in more than one hundred hospitalizations but no fatalities. Ortiz declared that he would not resign.
Asamblea popular de los pueblos de Oaxaca
The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca , or simply the APPO, is an organization that was assembled in response to the political situation in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, first meeting in June 2006.-History:A public demonstration and a teacher's strike in May of every year had occurred every...
(APPO, from its Spanish name, Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca). On June 17 APPO reestablished encampments in the zocalo and declared itself to be the governing body of Oaxaca, plunging the city into a state of civil rebellion. Barricades were constructed across some streets in an effort to prevent further police raids. APPO began to seek country-wide solidarity with their movement and urged other states within Mexico to similarly organize popular assemblies at every level of social organization: neighborhoods, street blocks, unions, and towns. Various municipality offices across the state closed in unity. A popular mantra was, “No leader is going to solve our problems”.
Mexican general election, 2006
A general election was held in Mexico on Sunday, July 2, 2006. Voters went to the polls to elect, on the federal level:*A new President of the Republic to serve a six-year term, replacing then Mexican President Vicente Fox .*500 members to serve for a...
on July 2, Ulises Ruiz's Institutional Revolutionary Party
Institutional Revolutionary Party
The Institutional Revolutionary Party is a Mexican political party that held power in the country—under a succession of names—for more than 70 years. The PRI is a member of the Socialist International, as is the rival Party of the Democratic Revolution , making Mexico one of the few...
(PRI) suffered electoral defeat in Oaxaca, a state they have ruled for seventy years.
APPO did agree to boycott the annual Guelaguetza
Guelaguetza
The Guelaguetza, or Los lunes del cerro is an annual indigenous cultural event in Mexico that takes place in the city of Oaxaca, capital of the state of Oaxaca, as well as in nearby villages...
festival in the final weeks of July. Protesters blocked access to the auditorium in which the festival is held using burned buses and miscellaneous trash, thus preventing the finalization of renovations to the facility. This action drew criticism due to the damage that some individuals did to the auditorium by starting fires and spray painting graffiti. Some of the graffiti said: "Tourists, go home! In Oaxaca we are not capitalists". As a result of the boycott, the government cancelled the celebration of the festival - in its stead the APPO held an alternative version of the cultural festival over the course of several days.
The action marked the lowest point of government for Ulises Ruiz, who subsequently left the State. He resided in Mexico City for a few months.
After a few weeks of absence, the APPO assumed control of the city and started implementing their own law, while confrontations with State Police escalated.
August 2006
August 1 saw the beginning of APPO's break in of television and radio stations throughout the city. While all of these stations are no longer occupied by APPO members, the use of radio has been an important facet of the movement. APPO utilized the radio resources in order to communicate about possible threats from police and armed gangs, demand the removal of Ulises Ruiz and the release of political prisoners. During APPO's illegal occupation of the radio stations, pro-PRI groups engaged in frequent late-night armed attacks on APPO-controlled radio stations and damaged their broadcasting equipment.Those attacks on the APPO-controlled radio stations represented an escalation of violence in a conflict that (despite constant rumors of threats) had remained relatively peaceful since the June 14 police raid. In what was called a "cleanup operation", armed groups of men attacked the APPO's barricades during the nights. The individuals involved were identified as members of pro-PRI organizations and as plain-clothes local police. These attacks, combined with other shootings and assassinations, resulted in the first deaths associated with the conflict, in which six APPO supporters were killed.
September 2006
On September 14, striking teachers and APPO members took over the municipal building in Huautla de Jiménez, located in the Sierra Mazateca in northern Oaxaca. They retained control of the building until mid-January 2007 (months after the government regained control of Oaxaca City), when Oaxacan state police briefly occupied the city, patrolling the streets with large guns and guarding the municipio all hours of the day and night.The leader of Mazatecan APPO, Agustín Sosa, was elected mayor (presidente) of Huautla de Jiménez in November 2007, to a term beginning in January, 2008. Sosa is a longtime activist who spent many months in jail in 2004, accused of murder in the death of a protester (at the hands of the police) at a protest organized by Sosa. He bears no relation to Flavio Sosa
Flavio Sosa
Flavio Sosa Villavicencio , is a Mexican activist and a member of the provisional collective council of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca .-Political career:...
, the still imprisoned leader of APPO.
October 2006
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Indymedia
Independent Media Center
The Independent Media Center is a global participatory network of journalists that report on political and social issues. It originated during the Seattle anti-WTO protests worldwide in 1999 and remains closely associated with the global justice movement, which criticizes neo-liberalism and its...
journalist from New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
who had entered the country under a tourist visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
, was killed along with Professor Emilio Alonso Fabián and Esteban López Zurita, in what the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
has claimed was a "shootout" between protesters and a group of armed men. Photographs by Brad Will, however, demonstrate that the protesters were throwing rocks at the gunman. Photographs of Brad Will, after he was shot, show a man laying on the ground, surrounded by friends, and not the "armed gangs" that the Associated Press has reported. An autopsy by the Mexican government has concluded that "two shots" were fired at Brad Will, one from in front and one from behind (which, the government alleges, was fired by a protester). The body was never examined for blood clotting in the second wound, which would have demonstrated that it was "implemented" in the morgue. Brad Will's body was cremated. The family of Brad Will visited Mexico to demand justice from the court system, and upon hearing the accusation that their son was shot at close range by a protester, they called it "ridiculous, false, without substance, biased, and unconvincing." They also accused the District Attorney of falsifying evidence and acting in bad faith.
However, protesters claim the shooting was by a group of armed men against unarmed protesters. Oswaldo Ramírez, a photographer for Mexico City daily Milenio was also shot in the foot. Lizbeth Cana, attorney general of Oaxaca, claims the shooting of the protesters was provoked by the protesters themselves and that the armed men who engaged them were upset residents from the area. The U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Tony Garza
Tony Garza
Antonio Oscar "Tony" Garza, Jr. , an American lawyer and former county judge in Texas, was the United States Ambassador to Mexico from 2002 to 2009.-Early life and education:...
, however, claims the men may have been local police. El Universal
El Universal (Mexico City)
El Universal is a major Mexican newspaper.El Universal was founded by Félix Palavicini and Emilio Rabasa in October 1916, in the city of Santiago de Queretaro to cover the end of the Mexican Revolution and the creation of the new Mexican Constitution...
has identified some of the men as local officials. Protestors also allege that the men were police and not local residents. Indymedia claims from a first-hand witness that the man who shot Bradley Roland Will was an "urban paramilitary" member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party
Institutional Revolutionary Party
The Institutional Revolutionary Party is a Mexican political party that held power in the country—under a succession of names—for more than 70 years. The PRI is a member of the Socialist International, as is the rival Party of the Democratic Revolution , making Mexico one of the few...
. A local news organisation, Centro de Medios Libres, claims that from Will's recovered videotapes, they have found that Pedro Carmona
Pedro Carmona (Oaxaca)
Pedro Carmona is a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party who was mayor of the district of Felipe Carrillo Puerto in the municipality of Santa Lucía del Camino in the Mexican state of Oaxaca....
, a paramilitary who was the mayor of Felipe Carrillo Puerto
Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Oaxaca
See also Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo.Felipe Carrillo Puerto is a suburb/town in Santa Lucía del Camino in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, named after the politician Felipe Carrillo Puerto....
in Santa Lucía del Camino
Municipalities of Oaxaca
The Mexican state of Oaxacais made up of 571 municipalities —more than any other state....
, was the person who shot Bradley Roland Will. Another shooting took place later in the day outside the state prosecutors office, leading to three injuries.
An Associated Press report by Rebeca Romero (Dec 11, 2006, 12:33 AM (ET)) claims, "Most of the nine victims of the Oaxaca violence have been protesters who were shot by armed gangs..." One protester, in response to the massive denunciations of the state-controlled media, has said, "I saw a young boy shot in the leg, friends around me arrested left and right, bullets flying everywhere. The government needed someone to blame, and it came down heaviest on the people at the barricades, especially strategic barricades like Cinco Senores. They called us vandals and thieves and delinquents."
The death of Bradley Roland Will prompted President
President of Mexico
The President of the United Mexican States is the head of state and government of Mexico. Under the Constitution, the president is also the Supreme Commander of the Mexican armed forces...
Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox
Vicente Fox Quesada is a Mexican former politician who served as President of Mexico from 1 December 2000 to 30 November 2006 and currently serves as co-President of the Centrist Democrat International, an international organization of Christian democratic political parties.Fox was elected...
to send federal police to Oaxaca after months of attempting to stay neutral in what he considered a local issue.
October 29–30
At least two protesters, Social Security Institute workers Roberto López Hernández and nurse and APPO safety commission member Jorge Alberto Beltrán, were killed when about 3,500 federal police and 3000 military police removed protesters in downtown Oaxaca's Zócalo, with a backup of 5,000 army troops waiting just outside the city.. The police forces were met with resistance from protesters and Radio APPO reported police raids (which were denied by the federal government) on activists' homes, helicopters dropped chemical grenades (apparently tear gas) on protesters who had been pushed from the Zócalo. Multiple unconfirmed reports of a young teenager shot in the streets near Puente Tecnológico; the boy's body was reportedly taken by police. There have been some deaths according to local media, and while the APPO claims 'dozens' of deaths, the exact number is yet unknown. Protests continue, with sporadic clashes occurring around the Zócalo which is held by Federal forces.Numerous people have been detained; footage shows at least four being removed in a PFP Mi-17
MI-17
MI-17 can refer to:* Mil Mi-17, Soviet helicopter*M-17...
helicopter.
The Mexican Episcopate Conference, an organization of the Catholic Church, supported the intervention of the Federal Police in the conflict.
November 2006
An open letterOpen letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....
written "to honor the memory" of slain journalist Brad Will and support "the Oaxacan people's efforts to establish a popular government that recognizes local traditions and values", was signed in early November by numerous academics and activists, including Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.-Family:...
, Michael Moore
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
, Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays...
, Starhawk
Starhawk
Starhawk is an American writer and activist. She is well known as a theorist of Paganism, and is one of the foremost popular voices of ecofeminism. She is a columnist for Beliefnet.com and On Faith, the Newsweek/Washington Post online forum on religion...
and Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
.
November 2, 2006
Federal Preventative Police advanced on the Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca, occupied by students and displaced protesters from the Zocalo. Since the University is autonomous, the police are forbidden from entering the grounds, unless invited by the Rector .Thousands of protesters arrived in the following hours, surrounding the police and eventually forcing them to withdraw from the area surrounding the university. The APPO has also received permission by the university rector, through threats of violence, to broadcast their messages through the university radio, which they have used to criticise political parties, the PRI specifically. Opinions against the APPO are quickly taken off the air
After criticism by the private sector, political organizations and the press (specifically Grupo Formula's news anchor Denise Maerker) for his remarks towards the APPO the rector declared that he had requested respect for the rights of students and faculty and that a tentative operation by the Federal Police would not be a solution to the issue
November 6, 2006
Three explosions in Mexico City destroyed a ScotiabankScotiabank
The Bank of Nova Scotia , commonly known as Scotiabank , is the third largest bank in Canada by deposits and market capitalization. It serves some 18.6 million customers in more than 50 countries around the world and offers a broad range of products and services including personal, commercial,...
branch lobby, blew out windows at Mexico's Tribunal Federal Electoral (Federal Electoral Tribunal), and damaged the auditorium at PRI headquarters. Other homemade bombs were placed in a second Scotiabank branch and in front of the chain restaurant Sanborns, but these were disabled before exploding. A phone call was placed to authorities shortly before midnight which warned of the bombings.
None of the exploded bombs resulted in injuries or death.
A coalition of five leftist guerrilla groups from Oaxaca
Oaxaca
Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
claimed responsibility for the blasts. There are no known ties between these guerrilla groups and Oaxacan protesters, and APPO members denied any involvement in or knowledge of the bombings.
November 10-13, 2006
Despite the presence of federal police in the city, the APPO has continued to organize, holding a Constitutional Congress in order to discuss plans to rewrite Oaxaca's political constitution. Likewise, in an attempt to broaden its focus throughout the state and develop future projects, the movement formed the State Council of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (CEAPPO). This new council will be formed of 260 representatives from the various regions of Oaxaca, including 40 members of the teachers' union. This represents a major development for the APPO's continuing attempts to develop alternative political proposals while still pushing for the removal of Ulises Ruiz.November 25–26, 2006
On Saturday, November 25, 2006, a large clash between the federal police and demonstrators occurred in the evening following the seventh megamarch held by the APPO. The march began peacefully, but the situation turned violent when the police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets as protesters attempted to encircle the city's zócalo. It is unclear who instigated the violence, but the clash quickly spread through the city as protesters fought back with rocks and homemade PVC rockets. Police took the APPO encampment in the Santo Domingo plaza and arrested more than 160 people. Many APPO supporters were hospitalized, and the deaths of three protesters were reported but remain unconfirmed.On Saturday, and continuing on Sunday, November 26, fires were set by the protesters to numerous vehicles, and fires also destroyed or damaged four buildings housing government offices (including a tax and court office), one university building, and an office building of a local trade association. Three hotels were also attacked, and some local businesses were looted.
On Monday, November 27, 2006, the Chief of the Federal Police, Ardelio Vargas, stated that they would no longer have any more tolerance for the APPO. "There will be no more tolerance (...) those who go against the law will have their punishment. The warrants and orders of arrest are not ordered by the police, but by local and federal judges", he said.. Efforts have been made to follow through on these threats as movement leaders have been arrested and organizational offices have been raided. After indications that the APPO would assemble at the State University Campus following the weekends confrontations, Vargas said that "there will be no violation of the autonomy of the University"
In the following days the APPO removed the last of their barricades from the city and turned over control of the university radio station to the rector, citing lack of security. APPO leaders have gone into hiding, claiming a repressive crackdown by state authorities against those involved in the movement. The police have been accused of arresting teachers out of classrooms, beating detainees and false arrests.
December 2006
On Monday, December 4, hours after he said at a news conference in Mexico City that he had gone to the capital to negotiate a peaceful solution, Flavio SosaFlavio Sosa
Flavio Sosa Villavicencio , is a Mexican activist and a member of the provisional collective council of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca .-Political career:...
was arrested by police on charges related to the barricades, vandalism and irregular detentions carried out by some protesters. Sosa's brother, Horacio, and two other men were also arrested on unspecified charges. Flavio Sosa's heavy-set, bearded presence became an emblem of APPO. After his arrest, the PRD
Party of the Democratic Revolution
The Party of the Democratic Revolution is a democratic socialist party in Mexico and one of 2 Mexican affiliates of the Socialist International...
, through their speaker, Gerardo Fernandez Noroña, revealed that Sosa was a member of the party's National Council and said that this obliged them to assume Sosa's legal defense.
The following week, the federal police seized armament from Oaxaca's State Police and said that local forces were under investigation based on accusations of murder that the APPO made against them. The APPO reported that the federal government offered to not detain any other members of their movement..
Ulises Ruiz
At the heart of the continuing conflict are attitudes towards the state's governor, Ulises Ruiz, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary PartyInstitutional Revolutionary Party
The Institutional Revolutionary Party is a Mexican political party that held power in the country—under a succession of names—for more than 70 years. The PRI is a member of the Socialist International, as is the rival Party of the Democratic Revolution , making Mexico one of the few...
which governed Mexico for most of the 20th century, but which now is a minority in a nation where political power resides in 3 main parties. However, the main power struggle is between the rightist National Action Party
National Action Party (Mexico)
The National Action Party , is one of the three main political parties in Mexico. The party's political platform is generally considered Centre-Right in the Mexican political spectrum. Since 2000, the President of Mexico has been a member of this party; both houses have PAN pluralities, but the...
and the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party
Party of the Democratic Revolution
The Party of the Democratic Revolution is a democratic socialist party in Mexico and one of 2 Mexican affiliates of the Socialist International...
, leaving the Institutional Revolutionary Party
Institutional Revolutionary Party
The Institutional Revolutionary Party is a Mexican political party that held power in the country—under a succession of names—for more than 70 years. The PRI is a member of the Socialist International, as is the rival Party of the Democratic Revolution , making Mexico one of the few...
free to form coalitions with one of the two parties. Ruiz is a polemical figure whom opponents accuse of stealing his 2004 election, suppressing the freedom of the press, destruction of public spaces and historical monuments in the city, and repression of political opponents. Protestors argue that the constitution gives the central government the power under certain circumstances to remove a sitting governor; the Senate of the Republic
Senate of Mexico
The Senate of the Republic, constitutionally Chamber of Senators of the Honorable Congress of the Union After a series of reforms during the 1990s, it is now made up of 128 senators:...
, voted on the issue and decided that those "special circumstances" are not to be found in Oaxaca.
As the conflict in Oaxaca has grown more intractable, outside pressure on Ruiz to resign has grown, but he has not shown signs of budging. The senate has blamed both the governor and the APPO for the violence that originated in the state , while the business group Coparmex
Coparmex
Coparmex or Confederación Patronal de la República Mexicana is the Mexican Employers' Association.Current President: Lic. Gerardo Gutiérrez Candiani.-External links:* This site uses flash....
in the state of Puebla and the then Secretary of the Interior Carlos Abascal have called for his resignation or blamed him for the conflict. The APPO has made his resignation or removal their one non-negotiable demand before they will agree to end the conflict.
See also
- APPO
- Ulises Ruiz
- San Juan CopalaSan Juan CopalaSan Juan Copala is a little town in the municipality of Santiago Juxtlahuaca in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, inhabited by Trique Indians. Its inhabitants have declared themselves autonomous of the Mexican state and founded the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala in 2006.It has been the...
- Autonomous Municipality of San Juan CopalaAutonomous Municipality of San Juan CopalaThe Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala is an entity made up of Trique Indians who declared their autonomy of the Mexican state in 2006 as a reaction to repression by the Mexican state, especially the Oaxacan government, whose leader Ulises Ruiz was targeted by the APPO movement at the time...
- Zapatista Army of National LiberationZapatista Army of National LiberationThe Zapatista Army of National Liberation is a revolutionary leftist group based in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico....