These acts of institutional violence (breaking into homes, persecution, aggresion and criminalization of social protest, assassinations, imprisonments, forced disappearances, political persecutions) are dictated by the governors such as Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, and which the repressive units execute at his orders, in a fascist way. They attempt to terrorize we who in a determined, conscious and peaceful way have participated in the dignified struggle of the APPO since 2006, in search of justice, democracy, assistance to be able to count on social benefits, such as a dignified living space; for profound transformations in our state which benefit the majority; for a new constitution which offers respect for the constitutional rights and guarantees of all Oaxaqueños and not just the rich business people and their puppet governments.
These fcts are linked with the recent orders for arrest put out against several members of the APPO, who are unjustly blamed for the murder of the Indymedia photographer BRADLEY ROLAND WILL, when we all know via those same media that the (shooters) were paramilitary people, paid by URO who carried out crafty crime.
The popular movement in the state and nation is recovering, by the change of the Leadership of Section 22 of SNTE-CNTE and by the heroic popular teachers movement which is developing in the state of Morelos.
The alliance between Felipe Calderón and Ulises Ruiz will not hold back the struggle of the people of Oaxaca and of México. Therefore we condemn the dirty work that the tribunals of the second case in point are doing to citizens who belong to the APPO.
Because of this situation we call:
1. To the people in general demand a halt to the persecution orchestrated by Ulises Ruíz Ortíz in complicity with the PGR in the State of Oaxaca. against members of the social movement in the State
2. To the national and international organizations for Human Rights be on alert, prepared and ready to act, since the repression is escalating against the social activists of the state.
3. To the Oaxaca teachers union, with which today more than ever we join our efforts to demand the departure of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz from the government of Oaxaca, furthermore for the punishment of those responsible for the crimes against humanity committed against the people Oaxaca.
4. We demand the immediate freeing of our compañero: Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno unjustly imprisoned, accused of participating in the assassination of Brad Will; and as well that of the compañeros of CODEDI-Xanica Abraham Ramírez Vásquez, and Noel and Juventino García Cruz, prisoners since 2005, for defending their town council named by usos y costumbres and whom URO at all costs changed to PRI persons, we demand also the freeing of all those who are unjustly detained in the prisons of the state and the country since the arrival of the tyranny of the governance of Felipe Calderón who became president of the country in an illegitimate manner.
5. We call on all the sectors and organizations participating in the APPO to strengthen it, to stop this new wave of repression and to continue our struggle for the profound transformation Oaxaca.
6. To construct a unitary plan of action where all the social sectors participate, with the goal of installing an Constituent Assembly which would propose a constitution filled with benefits for all Oaxaqueños.
7. To promote with the organization of the peoples and from below, the construction of a Popular Government to benefit to the indigenous peoples and the poor of Oaxaca.

HALT THE VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN OAXACA!
HALT THE PERSECUTION BY THE STATE!
ULISES RUIZ OUT OF OAXACA!
FREEDOM FOR THE POLITICAL PRISONERS PROCESSED AND SENTENCED!
FOR OUR POLITICAL DEAD, DISAPPEARED, JAILED AND PERSECUTED, NOT ONE STEP BACKWARD
FOREVER UNTIL VICTORY

Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca City of the Resistence, October 24, 2008.

The exhumation of eight bodies from one of these clandestine graves in the Panteón Jardín, two of them children and six adults, shows in a blunt way the policy of state terrorism and para-militarism which the criminal Ulises Ruiz developed to try to contain the dissidence of Oaxaqueños, for all the crimes, violations of human rights and other atrocities which this assassin has committed against the peoples, authorities and organizations since his imposition as governor of Oaxaca.

The exhumations were denounced by municipal authorities of the state capital, indicating how this dirty work of secret burial, by the cousin of this same Ulises Ruiz named Romeo Ruiz Garcia, operates and they show only the tip of the iceberg of the number of assassinated, since in the denunciation there is also indicated that this same cousin is looking for accommodation for two hundred additional bodies.

This information strengthens and confirms many of the investigations carried out by offices with great professionalism and seriousness like the International Comisión of Observation For Human Rights (CIODH), who have presented, in Mexico as well as in the European Parliament, who information papers about the violations committed by the governments against the resistance of the people of Oaxaca during 2006-2007.

The secret graves are an undeniable proof to begin a work of national and international denunciation regarding the crimes committed, and to demand punishment for the criminal Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, the presentation of t he disappeared and immediate and inconditional freedomfor those who remain in prison.

Common graves occur under fascist dictators, and that is what is being placed in evidence agains the state and federal government.

In the face of all this evidence we propose:

1. Convoking an assembly of the APPO which would be really representative, where a broad commssion would be formed after analyzing discussing if it is pertinent or not to go to a negotiation table without being mobilized or to be exercising a true pressure which guarantees the political demands of the peoples of Oaxaca.
2. While awaiting the date for the assembly, to develop a national and international campaign denouncing the existence of the secret graves.
3. Convoking national and international committees for human rights to reopen this case and form groups which would come to investigate, in a specific manner, the theme of the disappeared and the secret graves.
4. That the sole demands of the APPO continue to be:
• The immediate departure of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, to guarantee a thorough and impartial investigation of the disappeared and the clandestine graves.
• Immediate and unconditional freedom fo all the political prisoners of Oaxaca, since the only deed of which they have been accused under the government of a criminal and violator of human rights is evidence of the manipulation of the laws he carried out to incriminate them.
• Presentation of all the disappeared
• Cancellation of all orders for arrest for political motives, of those freed during the regime of the criminal Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.
• Punishment of all the functionaries of the government involved in crimes against humanity, repression and violation of human rights. Particularly of those involved in the common graves and acts of torture.

¡ ULISES OUT OF OAXACA!
¡AGAINST THE CRIMINAL GOVERNORS AND THE TRAITORS OF THE PEOPLE!
¡NEITHER PARDON NOR FORGET!

VISIT TO CAMBRIDGE , Massachusetts

Monday, February 11, 2008 – 6:00pm

In front of:

Harvard’s John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum

79 JFK Street, Cambridge.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 4, 2008

Contact: Suren Moodliar (English)

Massachusetts Global Action

Phone:  617-482-6300

Email:  suren[@]fairjobs. org

Summary:

      A growing coalition of local progressive organizations and individuals has decided to protest the policies of the Mexican government represented by its President, Felipe Calderón as he addresses Harvard’s JFK Forum. Calderon came to power after another undemocratic “election” in Mexico . His government continues to repress indigenous people, the labor movement, in particular in Oaxaca , and is responsible, together with government of the United States for the situation of millions of undocumented Mexican workers in the U.S. At the same time, Calderon is now advocating for the Security and Prosperity Partnership, which strengthens the NAFTA agreement that is detrimental to workers in Mexico and the U.S.

Details:

      * In 2006, President Calderon stole the presidency from the Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD) candidate Andrés López Obrador. On July 2, 2006 Mexicans voted at over 130,000 different polling stations, casting separate ballots for president, senator and federal deputies. International and Mexican election observers noted that there weren’t enough independent and party observers present in the process. In many regions, one party dominated, creating opportunities for vote shaving, ballot stuffing, lost ballots and other forms of fraud. The PRD’s strongest accusation comes from the fact that ballots in nearly one third of the country were not counted in the presence of independent observers. One analysis of (Federal Election Commission equivalent) IFE results found that in 2,366 polling places only a PAN (Calderon’s National Action Party) observer was present and in those places, Calderon beat  Lopez Obrador by a 72-21 margin. Furthermore, PRD observers discovered that sealed ballot boxes were being opened illegally at IFE offices where PAN’s observers dominated the process. Given a history of electoral fraud in Mexico, during the nearly century reign of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party now allied with PAN) and the explicit support of Calderon in the Western media, we charge Calderon with manipulating Mexico’s democratic process, just as President Bush disenfranchised voters in Florida and Ohio to become president in the United States and demand that democracy be respected in Mexico, without interference from the United States or any other Western power.

      * There are at least 31 indigenous political prisoners, punished for their autonomous community organization, the defense of their territory and natural resources, the defense of their right to freely decide their own community matters, and their refusal to forget their culture and history. All of them organized to improve the living conditions in their regions and communities, yet charges have been invented to keep them locked up. There is paramilitary activity backed by the US and Mexican government against indigenous communities in Oaxaca . This facilitates the expansion of capitalism and empire in Oaxaca has led to an international call for solidarity against this state sponsored repression. What makes Oaxaca and other indigenous struggles in Mexico notable  is the commitment of strong currents within it to militancy, to non-violence, to non-hierarchical forms of social structure, to cooperation in place of competition, to local autonomy and, as much as possible, to local self-sufficiency. The jails of Oaxaca now reveal the war unleashed by the state government and those who have served it down through the years. By means of a silent war, the corporations and all the political parties are trying to do away with the Indian peoples, plunder their natural resources, erase their history with blood, and take their territory away from them. Extermination, exploitation, lies, dispossession, and prison have been the only state and federal government policies concerning the Indian peoples of Oaxaca .

      On September 25, 1996, the massive repression of the Z apotec men and women of the Loxicha region began when the Mexican Army brutally attacked those who were demanding better living conditions. The result was “200 illegal arrests, 150 cases of torture, 32 illegal searches, 22 extrajudicial executions, 22 forced disappearances, 137 political prisoners or prisoners of conscience, and an undetermined number of sexual abuses, harassment, death threats, and corrupt procedural irregularities” (Civilian Mission for the Observation of Human Rights, March 21-24, 2002).

      We therefore demand: Freedom for all Indigenous prisoners; Stop repression against indigenous peoples; Land, culture, history, language, Indigenous people are not merchandise.

      * Felipe Calderon inherited and strongly supports the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He supports deepening it in the form of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP).  Neither benefits working people in the 3 countries of North America . NAFTA weakened worker protections in all 3 countries, it increased low-wage, dead-end employment in Mexico while destroying food independence and agricultural employment in Mexico with highly-subsidized US crops. Millions of Mexicans are now forced to seek livelihoods across the border in the US . NAFTA also decreased job growth in the United States by a million jobs. However, as a former Mexican foreign minister remarked, NAFTA was “an agreement for the rich and powerful in the United States , Mexico , and Canada , an agreement effectively excluding ordinary people in all three societies.”

      In this vein, SPP is being drafted by the North American Competitiveness Council that consists of 30 corporate members. In addition to rewriting regulations entirely in favor of the corporations, it will likely extend US Government Patriot Act-style “security” policies to Canada and Mexico . This extension and recommended pro-corporate policies tend to be adopted by presidential/ executive decree rather than through deliberation by elected bodies (Congress or Parliament).

      Progressive organizations and unions in all three countries seek alternatives to NAFTA based on principles of real fair trade and solidarity. Other models for Latin American economic cooperation are being developed involving countries like Venezuela , Ecuador , Uruguay , Bolivia , and Cuba while rejecting US-imposed free-trade regimes. Felipe Calderon is helping lead the opposition to these progressive initiatives. We demand the termination of NAFTA and termination of the Security and Prosperity Partnership negotiations.

      * The governments of the United States and Mexico are responsible for the current situation of millions of undocumented workers in the U.S. These workers are on the one hand exploited and abused; on the other the U.S. government persecutes and repress them through raids, detention and deportations. The Mexican government, now headed by Felipe Calderon, pushes millions of workers out of their country and away from their families in desperate search for jobs in the North, while at the same time participating in the North American Free Trade Agreement that produced more exploitation for Mexicans but more unemployment of agricultural workers.

      Of particular note is the ill treatment that Mexican authorities provide migrants coming from Central America in transit to the United States . Hundreds of Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and Hondurans attempting to go through Mexico are robbed, detained, and sometimes killed in the process by corrupt police or gangs. Mexico signed the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, yet as of now it has not implemented it in full or in consciousness.

      We, therefore denounce these abuses and demand justice, and fair and humane treatment from Mexico and the U.S. for migrant workers and their families.

Agreements (6)
1. To organize the Extraordinary state assembly  to take place on March 1 and 2, 2008, with the goal of reorganizing and reworking the structure of the APPO

2. To promote  mobilization for February 8, 2008 in coordination with the youth assembly, Section 22, and the Oaxaca society to  protest the raise in price for public transport, against repression, liberty for the political prisoners and the recovery by Section 22 of the  schools put into the hands of Section 59.

3. To hand over to the Supreme Court on January 24 the report on events of 2006 and 2007, simultaneously with making the report available to other government offices. This is the accounting of the crimes committed by the governor of  the state. What makes it especially interesting is that this same Supreme Court exonerated Marin, the governor of Puebla, in the face of overwhelming evidence of his complicity in a pederasty ring. The court was divided–  what will happen with URO? This divided court seems to be worth watching.

Tasks (5)

1. To consult with the families of the fallen, jailed, arrested, etc to head a march to the city of Mexico to accompany the handing over of the report to the Supreme Court.

2. Carry out a socioeconomic poll regarding the raise in fares, installation of parking meters, sentiments about the government with the heads of families of schools, colonias, workplaces.

4. Join an event organized by the piqueteros Argentinos (Hijos de la plaza de mayo) January 27, 2008 in the Carmen Alto plazuela.

5. Promote the march called by COMO for February 2 at 16:00 from Llano Park to the zocolo
 

Pronouncements (2)

1. call for producing the disappeared Chatino, Lauro Juarez

GREETING TO THE CONFERENCE:  NOAM CHOMSKY

October 4, 2007 at MIT

I’m sorry that I can’t join you in person for this very important occasion, but I’d like at least to say a few words to express my admiration for what you all are doing in your professional work in indigenous education and also for your support for the teachers, the courageous teachers in Oaxaca who are fighting a struggle of enormous significance, not just there but part of a worldwide struggle which is particularly dramatic now all over Latin America, which has become, in my opinion, the most exciting part of the world for the first time in its modern history. 

After half a millennium, the countries of Latin America are beginning to move toward a significant level of integration instead of being separated from one another and dominated by imperial powers.  Integration is a prerequisite for independence and self-determination.  And they are also beginning to move seriously toward overcoming what has been the real curse of Latin America, apart from outside domination, the curse of the huge gap, unprecedented in the world, between a tiny elite of enormous wealth and a huge mass of deeply impoverished people.  It’s a gap that also has a racial and ethnic correlate to it, as you all know.  And there are steps towards trying to overcome that curse. 

Particularly dramatic has been the role of indigenous people, the most repressed and marginalized part of the population for centuries even in countries where they are the majority.  But they are finally organizing, demanding their rights, and making remarkable achievements, from the highlands of Bolivia to Chiapas and other places.  That’s a very dramatic and important development.  It’s reversing 500 years of miserable and ugly history, revitalizing the languages, the cultures, technical resources, developing forms of social organization that come out of their own traditions but are adapted to the modern world.  These are tremendously exciting developments and people like you are right at the center of it. 

This conference is at the core of the development and revitalization and defense and protection of indigenous rights, and with it, the rights of everyone.  And I would take for granted that the people in the world who have any concern for justice and freedom would be very pleased to join me in offering the warmest hopes and expectations for the success of the endeavors that you are involved in.

I saw you fall

And I fell as well

Your eyes

Which met the sky

Full of Justice

Of Respect

And of Truth

You, Brad Will

Helped the fallen stand

Heard the people

Invisible to others

You fell only in body

Your Spirit rose

Expanding consciousness

Making a better World

You are always here

And you will always be

We honor you, Our Brother

For your Righteousness and Kindness

ALWAYS LIVE BROTHER BRAD WILL!

QUE VIVA!