Yesterday, shortly before 11 a.m., hundreds of thousands of people left from the Casa del Gobierno in Santa María Coyotepec in the 7th MegaMarch since the beginning of the conflict in Oaxaca more than 6 months ago. Caravans from all 8 regions of the state arrived to march on the zócalo form a human chain around the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) who since October 29th has occupied the city’s central square. The march, convened by the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) was the seventh of its kind and, along with a 20-day march to Mexico City, various hunger strikes, fasts, barricades and a number of other forms of civil resistance, is yet another demonstration of the massive discontent among Oaxacans towards the state and federal governments for failing to recognize the APPO’s primary demands: the immediate renunciation of state governor Ulíses Ruíz Ortiz, the withdrawal of the occupation forces of the PFP, freedom for all political prisoners, and the presentation of all of those who have been disappeared.
As the march advanced towards the historic center of Oaxaca City thousands more joined in San Bartolo and other points along the march, which at one point extended more than 6 kilometers along the highway. In this massive action the APPO demonstrated its commitment to a civil and peaceful resistance, while at the same time affirming the peoples’ right to self-defense in the event of repression by the federal forces. Further confirming claims that the presence of the PFP has only intensified repression against the movement, as much from paramilitary forces as the federal police themselves, the previous night APPO spokesperson César Mateos Benítez and Jorge Sosa Campos were kidnapped and disappeared by government supported paramilitaries. The incident provoked further rage in a people who, in addition to living in a state with the second highest level of poverty and massive inequality, renowned for its brutal repression of social movements, have suffered severe persecution since this movement began on May 22nd.
Contrary to their stated purpose of establishing ‘peace’ and ‘order’, the presence of the PFP has only added to the repression against the movement which, before yesterday, had already suffered at least 17 assassinations, 114 arbitrary detentions (at least 17 of whom remain incarcerated), more than 28 disappearances, various documented cases of torture, nearly 120 raids of houses pertaining to the movement’s members, and illegal interference and attacks against the movements legitimately established radio, Radio Universidad, which is its primary means of communication. In addition to the 4 direct confrontations between demonstrators and the PFP, repeated armed attacks on the barricades protecting the University complex (CU) and constant patrols of the city, there have already been at least 2 reported cases of its members sexually assaulting women as they pass through the checkpoints they have established around the zócalo. Human rights organizations attribute this systematic repression to what appears to be a massive coordination between local, state, and federal police forces together with the army, navy and intelligence organizations, orchestrated together with mass media outlets in order to defame and suppress this legitimate form of social protest.
At around 2:30 p.m. yesterday the march, which by some estimates was nearly 1 million strong, arrived at the city’s center after marching the 8 kilometers from Santa María Coyotepec and began to surround the zócalo, concentrating in a number of intersections around the PFP to demand that they leave Oaxaca. Exchanges between demonstrators and the PFP were mostly verbal at first but soon turned violent amidst claims that the PFP were launching marbles, which the demonstrators responded to in a similar fashion throwing rocks at the lines of police. Around 4:30 p.m., these interchanges escalated as police began launching teargas and more marbles at APPO members on Alcalá street, beginning another prolonged and violent confrontation. Twice, the police advanced from the zócalo to the APPO encampment in Santo Domingo, launching teargas and marbles from the streets and the roofs, which demonstrators responded to by launching rocks with slingshots, large bottle rockets fired out of homemade bazookas and molotov cocktails. As they made these advances attempting to surround the demonstrators, people were detained and beaten en masse and several times tried to reorganize and advance once more towards the zócalo where the police were located, though each time with fewer and fewer people. Despite attempts to stall the advance of the federal forces by commandeering buses and trucks to block the intersections, demonstrators ultimately failed to take any more ground. In the final advances on these streets at around 7:30 p.m., members of the PFP shot at the demonstrators with 9mm firearms – used exclusively by the military – hitting at least one demonstrator in the leg.
Dispersed and further enraged, those who remained broke into various groups some of which set fire to vehicles, businesses and government offices including the Secretary of Tourism, the State Supreme Court, and the Federal Courthouse. "If this government doesn’t want to leave, we’ll have to make them leave ourselves", one demonstrator was quoted as saying, explaining why they were setting fire to these offices. Caravans of PFP circulated through the city surrounding, detaining and beating those who remained in the streets. Though numbers are unconfirmed at this point, the violence appears to have left at least 3 more people dead, another 100 detained or disappeared and more than 100 wounded, 20 from gunshot wounds. In addition to the PFP the ‘caravan of death’, heavily armed paramilitaries in unmarked pickups, was also circulating through all parts of the city harassing and shooting at those who remained in the streets and in safe houses, with at least 60 shots fired in the colonia of Xochimilco alone.
Today 3,000 additional elements of the AFI and PFP arrived in the city, it was announced that the more than 200 arrest warrants against members of the movement would be put into effect – once again using government provoked violence as a pretext to discredit and dismantle the movement. Patrols and arbitrary detentions continue today, and with the arrival of more federal forces, more operatives, raids and repression are likely to follow.
Amidst accusations that many of the direct confrontations with the PFP were provoked by a violent minority, it is important to understand how, in this context, the mere presence of these military-police forces occupying the city’s zócalo must be understood as provocation. When the government responds with repression to the simple demands of education, self-determination and a dignified life, and when on the one hand they pretend to negotiate while at the same time send federal police and military forces to the state – what options are the people left with?
Recalling 6 months back when the teachers of Section XXII of the National Union of Educational Workers went on strike to demand better salaries and working conditions in what is one of the poorest states in all of Mexico, it was similar repression by state police that sparked the formation of the APPO. Although the roots of the APPO are in that democratic teacher’s movement, it is now much broader in scope, yet repression remains the only answer that the government gives to their legitimate demands. As one of the graffiti left in the march’s trail read, ‘if you sow repression, you will reap rebellion’, and since this repression in Oaxaca, like that of Sicartsa and Atenco, seems to be the model that incoming president Felipe Calderón will implement, it remains to be seen what these next 6 years will bring. |
BUSQUEDA / SEARCH