Police attack Oaxaca festival

On July 17 in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, a confrontation between the APPO (Popular Assembly of The Peoples of Oaxaca) and security forces of the State of Oaxaca as well as Federal Preventive Police left at least 62 detained, an unknown number of people disappeared, and possibly at least one movement participant dead as a result of police violence. According to an APPO press statement released that day, the police launched "a broad offense" against the people of Oaxaca who were celebrating their alternative and popular guelaguetza (an annual Oaxacan cultural festival) in the Guelaguetza auditorium. The APPO had announced two days previously that it would hold an alternative cultural festival in the main Guelaguetza auditorium, located in the Fortin Mountain outside of the city. Federal Preventive Police and State police surrounded the perimeter of the Guelaguetza auditorium in order to prevent people from entering the festival. Soon after a caravan of 10,000 people arrived at the auditorium, the police attacked the crowd with tear gas, rocks, sticks, and unidentified explosive projectiles. The police then advanced, beating and arresting people attempting to retreat. Three photographers were reported to have been beaten. Countless others were tossed into the back of police pickup trucks with serious injuries. The state and the municipal police continued a citywide operation in the streets of Oaxaca City, detaining people throughout the day. The military were reported to have surrounded the city on the highways. Several people were reported to be in grave conditions, and police apparently apprehended injured festival participants and APPO supporters while they were transported by the Red Cross to receive medical attention. There are reports that the detained are suffering torture and constant beatings at the hands of the state and federal police. APPO members and sympathizers initially confirmed one person, Emeterio Cruz, to have been killed as the result of an explosive object thrown by the Oaxaca State Police impacting his stomach. However, there have since been other conflicting reports that this person may in fact have been gravely injured and transported by the state government from a private hospital to another hospital for special cases and that he may still be alive. The alternative Guelaguetza was planned by the APPO in response to what they say has become a government cooptation of the cultural festival that reflects indigenous tradition through dance. The movement charges that the festival has been made into a spectacle for tourists for years, and that the "official" Guelaguetza has degenerated into an economic exploitation event held on behalf of multinational corporations and Ulises Ruiz, the state governor targeted by the Oaxaca popular uprising that began last year. Last year, in actions against the official Guelaguetza, members of the APPO uprising burned the Guelaguetza stage.