OAXACA DE MAGÓN, NOVEMBER 25, 2006
MOMENTS OF REPRESSION IN OAXACA
The march left the morning of November 25 from Santa María Coyotepec, where on October 27th, the encampment that teachers held outside the Casa del Gobierno was repressed. Professors from the coast, demonstrators and inhabitnts of the locale were wounded with weapons such as machetes as well as firearms shot by police officers, officials and members of the PRI party. The events to this day have not been cleared up, but justice is still demanded.
It was the 7th MegaMarch, convened to arrive in the historic center of Oaxaca to form a human chain around the PFP. The march was made up of teachers from the Central Valleys, headed up by the city sectory and ending with Zimatlan, also arriving were caravans from the Isthmus and from the Sierras Juárez, Putla, Mixteca, Cañada, as well as students, the Coordination of Women, Section XXV of Health Workers, members of the colonias and the pueblo more generally. As the march went on, it got larger and larger as various other groups joined up, and in addition throughout the march people stayed on the sides of the highway helping out with water and fruit.
Around 3 p.m., the march arrived in the center after the long walk (around 8 kilometers) with each group responsible for shutting down one of the streets, respecting the agreement to keep 2 blocks distance in order to avoid a confrontation with the PFP. The following streets were blocked with human chains confronting the PFP to demand their immediate withdrawal: García Vigil, Avenida Hidalgo, Vlerio Trujano, Macedonio Alcalá, Flores Magón and Bustamante. The atmosphere was tense since in the building with the fabric store Parisina between Bustamante and Trujado, there were sharpshooters on the roofs, and on other streets others started to throw marbles, but despite the risk of repression, people remained firm and hopeful that they would be able to maintain the human chain peacefully for 48 hours as was planned.
On Alcalá street.
Explosions of teargas began to sound around 4:00 p.m., launched by the PFP at demonstrators, but the people remained united amidst the police repression.
Between 6:00 and 6:22, the group that remained on Macedonio Alcalá was forced to fall back 3 blocks when the PFP began to advance up that street towards the plaza of Santo Domingo. The compañeros filled the street nd were forced to fall back running, in occasions the retreat was disorganized but the group quickly calmed and regrouped, there were at least 500 moving from that location and a number of them decided to reinforce García Vigil street.
Around 6:30, the PFP entered Santo Domingo: the teargas and the continued advance of the PFP brought them up to the corner of Cosijoeza and Alcalá, and from there the PFP could be observed directly in front of IAGO and from a distance only a wall of police could be seen. Later on, they would inform that during this advance they were detaining at least 20 people in the plaza.
At 6:42, the people who were resisting in the barricades with fireworks, molotovs and rocks fell back another block to the corner of Gómez Farias.
And so went the rhythm of this resistance, and while in other streets where they had also established human chains, the police were already launching teargas that spread to a number of other streets nearby, affecting passersby as well as those who were looking curiously out their windows, and everyone covered their noses and mouths unable to breath from the gases.
Around 8 p.m., the State Supreme Court, Juárez Theater that was functioning as the provisional office for State Tourism, and District Court which was one of the causes of the confrontation. In order to slow the advance of the PFP, a number of trucks were burned and placed in intersections where the police were advancing.
The heaviest repression happened in Alcalá and 5 de Mayo, where there were almost 5 hours of confrontations, and by nightfall the barricades and trucks were set afire to slow the advance of the PFP who had, at that point, already left their roadblocks where they have remained since they entered the State. For the first time in these advances, they made it as far as the plaza of Santo Domingo, and at each step of their advance teargas, rubber bullets and shots from firearms from paramilitaries and police rained down, leaving a number of compañeros wounded from the firearms and unable to breathe from the quantity of gas, which causes spasms in the eyes forcing them closed, difficulty breathing, cough and vomiting.
While the people were retreating back to Calzada Héroes de Chapùltepec, the PFP was burning the APPO encampment in Santo Domingo, beating and detaining all of those they found in their paths, all of which happened in the midst of a giant cloud of teargas. It was literally a battlefield, although it was the people who had everything to lose, and the streets going towards the zócalo were pure shadows and the only light came from the fires at the barricdes.
People reorganized once again on Chapultepec avenue, and they put 3 trailers in the streets parallel to Alcalá and Nezahualcoyotl, and amongst the people a rumor was once again heard that would later be confirmed: the police were arriving at the ADO bus station to destroy the barricades. Shortly thereafter the police came in full force to grab everybody who was in the street at that point, a few adolescents were among the only who were able to escape, hiding in a parking lot and watching their brothers get arrested. As much as they could, people hid in the streets and in houses, although not all had such luck and were arrested by the patrols that were being realized throughout the night. The night was filled with tension as the police regrouped and patrolled la colonia Reforma, the fuente de 7 regiones, Cascada, Fortín, and a number of raids happened throughout the night as gunshots echoed all night. Today, Sunday the 26th, things have gotten even worse, and there is talk about at least 90 disappearances to this point. The raids have intensified due to calls by illegal PRIista 'Radio Mapache' for neighbors to report houses with APPO participants as well as any other suspicious behavior, with paramilitaries responding to these calls in many cases. The risk that the Autonomous University Benito Juarez of Oaxaca and therefore Radio Universidad, which serves as the link between the people and the actions that follow, will be taken. |
BUSQUEDA / SEARCH