Fatal attacks on protesters escalate violence in Oaxaca

Following the deaths of several protesters on Oct. 27, including US journalist Bradley Roland Will, the Mexican government has launched a full scale invasion of Oaxaca City in which several more protesters have been killed. The government said on Oct. 31 it had not gained complete control of Oaxaca's capital city despite sending thousands of federal police. Marches and demonstrations continue to grip the city. The conflict in Oaxaca, one of Mexico's poorest states, broke out in May when the local teachers' union went on strike and escalated after Gov. Ulises Ruiz tried to use force to break the strike in June. Since then, striking teachers, indigenous activists and community members united under the umbrella organization Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) have shut down the center of the city using barricades and permanent encampments in the Zócalo, the heart of the city. Due to the strike, 1.3 million public school students were unable to start the school year in September. Although striking teachers had promised to go back to work on Oct. 30, only about 4,000 of the state's 13,000 schools had opened on Oct. 31, none in the city of Oaxaca. Many teachers refused to honor the agreement after the federal government began its invasion. Since the invasion, some protesters have erected new barricades and refused to relinquish their hold on the capital. Currently the death toll in the conflict stands at 14 though it may be higher by the time this article goes to print. Most of the dead are protesters. APPO blames the 14 deaths on paramilitary groups made up of police officers and hired killers allegedly contracted by Ruiz. The Mexican Congress has passed a nonbinding resolution asking Ruiz to resign–the protesters' main demand–while Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos and former presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador called for demonstrations in other Mexican cities to support the protesters. Attacks on barricades escalate violence Events on Oct. 27, in which over 20 armed attacks on the barricades were reported, led to the invasion of Oaxaca City and the escalation of violence. Heavily armed men in civilian dress, who witnesses identified as police officers and municipal authorities, reportedly opened fire on members of APPO who were defending barricades they have set up to block streets in the city center. The protesters, whose blockades have frequently been the targets of drive-by shootings, had armed themselves with sticks and Molotov cocktails for protection. There were four main points attacked almost simultaneously including a barricade in the nearby city of Santa Lucia del Camino. It was at this site that the most violent confrontation of the afternoon took place, when a group of paramilitaries arrived to tear down the barricades armed with pistols and AR-15 assault rifles. The attackers reportedly opened fire on the protesters without provocation. Repelling the attack with sticks and rocks, the APPO neighborhood group sent out an alert to the rest of the neighborhood residents who started to arrive, as did journalists who covered the attack. Three people died from gunshot wounds incurred during the confrontation: a teacher, Emilio Alonso Fabián; a neighborhood resident named Esteban López Zurita; and a US reporter. The US reporter, Bradley Roland Will, 36, was working for Indymedia, an internet-based alternative news agency. He was killed by two shots to the abdomen while attempting to film interviews for a documentary he was preparing. The shooters have been identified as a group of plain-clothes police officers and municipal officials known to residents of the neighborhood. Former paramilitary Pedro Carmona reportedly fired the shots that killed Will. Osvaldo Ramírez, a photographer with the Mexican daily Milenio, was also among the injured. The worldwide press freedom organization, Reporters Without Borders, called for Ruiz to be prosecuted for his role in the conflict. It also urged federal authorities to investigate him and the Oaxaca municipal police, which it said had become a militia used by local officials. In the municipality of Santa Maria Coyotepec, two hours later, another group of paramilitaries, also armed with high-powered firearms, arrived at the area surrounding the state capital building and police facilities to "remove" about 100 teachers who had been camped out in the occupied state buildings for three months. Police invade city The Mexican Federal Preventative Police (PFP) entered Oaxaca City on Oct. 29, armed with assault rifles, shields, riot armor, batons and heavily armored "mini-tanks" with cowcatcher plows and high-powered water cannons, in addition to the Caterpillar front-end loaders used to clear away barricades and burning vehicles. They advanced through the city towards the Zócalo, the central plaza, where the main APPO camp had been located. There were confrontations at several of the barricades resulting in several deaths and many arrests. The advance was slow, and met with resistance, as protesters tried their best to avoid conflict with the heavily armed federal police. A hazy point in the PFP's plan was the abandonment of a number of transport buses in a street due east of the Zocalo. According to eyewitnesses, the police arrived in the busses en masse, took the street, then left the area, at which point protesters appropriated the busses and blocked strategic intersections with them, setting several of them on fire. That night, protesters left the Zócalo, at which point it was taken over by the PFP. At 7am on Oct. 30 it was the hub of the downtown cleanup activities, with front-end loaders and street cleaning crews removing all remaining visible evidence of the APPO camp. There were a large number of PFP officers, still in the Zócalo, along with several mini-tanks, and more PFP spread out in the downtown area, individually standing on street corners or walking down sidewalks. Many people leaving the Zócalo late on Oct. 29 headed east to reinforce barricades around University City. There is one main street providing access to University City, on its west side, and there were fortified barricades on each side of campus along that road. The campus itself is ringed by high walls, and the main entrance is heavily guarded, with entrants being asked for ID and frisked. Support for the barricades is high, with locals coming out with coffee and sweetbread for people on the barricades all thoughout the night. Although the Zócalo was taken by the PFP, APPO leader Flavio Sosa reported that there are still many barricades throughout the city which will continue to resist PFP presence, and that thousands of Oaxacans are currently en route to the city to assist in the popular movement. La Jornada is reporting three deaths in the invasion of Oaxaca, nurse Jorge Alberto López Bernal, professor Fidel García and a still unidentified 14-year-old. Lopez Bernal was killed with a direct hit from a tear gas grenade fired by a PFP officer. Fidel Garcia was stabbed to death. The APPO spokesperson, Florentino López, is reporting some 50 APPO members have been taken to the 28th Military Zone as prisoners of the state, some of them arrested in house-to-house raids as reported on Radio Universidad. Again, it is likely that the number of arrests will have increased by the time this goes to print. Despite invasion, resistance continues On the morning of Oct. 31 there were three marches in three different parts of the city–Viguera (the highway to Mexico City), Procuraduría General del Estado (the highway to the coast) and the Monumento a Juárez (the route to the Sierra Norte). At 11am a march left from the Monumento a Juárez, with approximately 10,000 people despite the PFP's attempts to block the entrance of many demonstrators from the Sierra Norte. The march was headed by members of the APPO and of the leadership of Sección 22 of the Teacher's Union–with the goal of peacefully re-occupying the Zócalo. At 1pm, following the chant "Oaxaca is not a barracks, military out of Oaxaca!" the mass of demonstrators sat down in front of the police and began to sing the Mexican National Anthem and the Mexican Magisterial Hymn. Afterward, Florentino López climbed one of the tanks to address the police and try to convince them that they "are part of the people," while the police advanced. Major barricades are still being defended in two places: Radio Universidad and the former Santo Domingo Convent (just five blocks away from the Zócalo). Protesters are also reportedly still in control of University City and are strategizing and regrouping there as of Nov. 1. All public transit in Oaxaca City has remained paralyzed. APPO's negotiation teams have added three demands to the principal demand that Ruiz step down as governor. In order to continue dialogue, they are demanding the immediate exit of the PFP from Oaxaca, freedom for all political prisoners and guarantees of safety for the negotiators themselves. Although three prisoners were freed early on Nov. 1 (two teachers and a biologist), many still remain in prison, and some have been moved to Mexico City. It was also reported that protesters in Mexico City had chased Ruiz forcing him to hide out in a hotel. Also coming from Mexico City were reports that solidarity protests and blockades were met with violence from the police. UN accuses Mexican government of human rights abuses The UN Special Reporter on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Dr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen, said in a statement he has received reports of human rights violations "including the killing and wounding by gunfire of innocent victims, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, illegal searches and breaches of due process." "The Special Reporter is extremely concerned with the use of force to counter protests arising from deeply entrenched social issues and recommends that federal and state authorities fully comply, at all times, with Mexico's international human rights commitments," the statement said. Stavenhagen called on the Mexican authorities to investigate the violence, and to prosecute those responsible, according to international standards. He also appealed to both the federal and state Governments to continue to seek a negotiated solution to the conflict, and to refrain from any further action that could block negotiations. He also called on the APPO and other social organizations involved in the protests "to continue promoting dialogue between all the parties involved, in the search for a peaceful and negotiated solution to their various demands, and to avoid violent confrontations." In a report on a mission to Mexico in 2003, he recommended that the Mexican government "should take urgent steps to disband, disarm and punish armed paramilitary or civilian groups that are operating in indigenous regions." He also recommended that "the federal and State judiciary and the national system of ombudsmen should ensure that legislation and justice are not used in the interests of local authorities to treat legitimate protest or social dissent as a crime or penalize it." Pro-government radio station condones violence and distorts events On 99.1 FM, the clandestine and recently created "Citizen's Radio," claimed that "the town is finally liberating the city from the grip of the APPO." Protesters maintain that the station was created by supporters of the Ruiz government who are attempting to blame APPO for the violence on Oct. 27. An anonymous speaker on the powerful pirate station reported that "the neighbors of Santa Lucia del Camino decided to clear the barricades and were attacked by Flavio Sosa's friends." This false statement has been repeated by some mainstream media agencies. And while they continued urging listeners "to follow the example of Santa Lucia del Camino," on the streets of Calicanto in this Oaxaca suburb, the so called "neighbors"–as they were described on the pro-government radio station–had AR-15 rifles with which they shot at APPO members that had heard the alert call from the real residents of the area. The radio station considers Governor Ulises Ruiz and State Attorney Lizbeth Caña Cadeza heroes, and APPO leaders Flavio Sosa, Enrique Rueda, Carlos Abascal and Gabino Cué the villains, and continued to urge the listeners: "Forward People! Let's Take Back Oaxaca." Meanwhile "neighbors"" off in the distance and still bearing their AR-15 rifles–continued to smile and enjoy impunity that is given to presumed policemen serving the right wing municipal government in Santa Lucia del Camino.