Oaxaca protesters continue to hold ground

Barricades removed by the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) during their invasion and occupation of Oaxaca City since Nov. 1 may have already been reconstructed throughout the city as early as the evening of Nov. 12. "If hostility continues, if detentions and disappearances continue, we will put up more barricades...if Ulises doesn't leave, we will put the barricades back up," said Alejandro Benitez, a student of the university that houses the last remaining Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) radio station in the city. Ulises Ruiz is the governor of Oaxaca. In an attempt to satisfy negotiations with APPO to take down the remaining barricades, the government has released a few dozen political prisoners in small groups each day, but as some prisoners are released more people are detained or disappear. The approximate number of detained so far is 85, and about 34 people are considered to be disappeared. Indeed, every day numerous acts of aggression take place against APPO members, their families and supporters. Nov. 11, as a 5.1 earthquake shook the city, more students disappeared and received threats, prompting the occupied university to declare a red alert. Four APPO leaders with warrants on their names sought asylum in the Catholic church for the night. Many members of APPO's 350 integrated organizations have abandoned their homes and offices because of threats and violence from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) party members or supporters. "We are on the run," said Claudia, a member of Commission for the Rights of the People. "They have entered our houses, or they have threatened us, so we are not sleeping or working there. We won't just go to jail, the PRIistas will disappear us, they will kill us." Under so much repression, APPO was to meet on Nov. 12 to draw a plan of action. And on the other side, with the governablity of Oaxaca in question, Governor Ruiz, under pressure from all sides including the Mexican Congress, has accused his enemies in the federal government of "being afraid to apply the law." The Last Barricade Cinco Señores is the last major barricade remaining after the entrance of the PFP in Oaxaca City. The barricade spreads over several blocks surrounding the autonomous Benito Juarez University and the University Radio, the only remaining APPO radio. Recently, the radio signal has had interruptions and can no longer be heard in some parts of the city; in response, a march of radio supporters held a protest decrying radio interruptions. At the intersection of Cinco Señores, each road is blocked with burned buses, rebar and light poles. Shots were fired into and towards the university four times in recent days, twice in the early morning, once at night and once in the early afternoon on Nov. 12. Twenty-two-year-old Marco Sanchez Mertinez was hit by a bullet while guarding the radio station entrance and remains in grave condition in the hospital. Though the government presented the possibility of removing the PFP from the city if the protesters removed the Cinco Señores barricade and freed up movement on the central university avenue, APPO decided that they would keep the barricade intact and reinforce security as long as aggressions continue. Apart from the new APPO camp in Santo Domingo plaza, the Cinco Señores Barricade is the only remaining image of rebellion in Oaxaca City. Before the federal forces entered Oaxaca there were close to 3,000 barricades of varying sizes around the city, but today the Cinco Señores Barricade is ground zero for the flickering visibility of APPO in the city. The presence of the PFP in Oaxaca City has greatly empowered supporters of the governor and members of his PRI party. Radio Ciudana, a PRI-controlled radio station, has openly threatened members of APPO, calling on PRI supporters to go to houses of APPO members and to hurt them. There have been reports that Molotov cocktails have been thrown into the houses of some APPO members. At night Oaxaca City falls quiet, and people rarely walk around unless in large groups, for fear of being disappeared, arrested or killed. Although the Federal Police hold a 24-hour standing blockade in full riot gear on all the streets surrounding the Zocalo, people still insist Oaxaca City cannot be occupied by anyone but the people themselves. Late one night, protesters took pounds and pounds of the day's trash from the APPO camp in Santo Domingo plaza to a huge dumpster that sits in front of a line of police with shields protecting the Zocalo. The protesters stuck their fingers to the air and, discovering that the police were down wind, lit the trash on fire. As the police were forced to remain standing in the smoke of burning trash, people walked by on the street and shouted insults at them.