Mexico sends troops to violent Oaxaca

[EFerrari]

By REBECA ROMERO, Associated Press Writer 36 minutes ago

OAXACA, Mexico - President
Vicente Fox announced Saturday he was sending federal police into the violence-wracked southern state capital of Oaxaca after a U.S. journalist and two Mexican men were shot to death. The clashes occurred Friday as leftist protesters barricaded streets as part of a five-month-old campaign to oust the governor.


Fox's office issued a declaration saying that the federal forces would concentrate in Oaxaca on Saturday. His office later clarified that he was referring to federal police, not troops, but did not specify how many were being sent.

The president earlier had refused to send such forces to the city, insisting that the dispute should be resolve through negotiations. The conflict has been one of the biggest challenges for Fox, whose six-year term ends Dec 1.

(snip)

However, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza said the armed group may have been police. The Mexico City newspaper El Universal on Saturday published photos identifying some of the men firing at protesters as local officials.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061028/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/m...

[acmavm]

1. And unless you read Yahoo, so little is known about the troubles in

Mexico and what measures the peasantry (for lack of a better word) is taking to oust the criminals.

[EFerrari]

2. Misleading headline. Indy Media and Narco News report

that police in civilian dress fired on strikers. So, voila! NOW there is violcnce so Fox can send in his federal thugs.

It's enough to make you

[Benhurst]

3. It does make me sick.

[EFerrari]

6. Take Action here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Benhurst]

12. I just sent this to the Red Cross:

Is true your organization is under orders not to help wounded strikers?

If so, you should change your symbol to the twisted cross.

[EFerrari]

14. Good. Thanks.

Let them know people are watching and taking note.

[roody]

19. I took the advice from the other thread and

did not give the Red Cross a hard time? I asked what can we do here in the US to help you get in to save lives?

[Benhurst]

21. Who knows what will work with Lidda Dole's old gang.

Their track record all the way back to WWII has not been very good.

We ended up doing the old "good cop/bad cop" routine.

Let's hope something works.

[leftchick]

4. sick sick sick

and this same activity will be coming soon to our nation as well.

[Barrett808]

5. "Violent" Oaxaca

Except the violence is from the government:

Brad Will, New York Documentary Filmmaker and Indymedia Reporter, Assassinated by Pro-Government Gunshot in Oaxaca While Reporting the Story
Photographer Oswaldo Ramirez of the Daily Milenio Wounded in Attack by Shooters for Ulises Ruiz Ortiz in Santa Lucia del Camino

By Al Giordano
October 27, 2006

Brad Will, 36, a documentary filmmaker and reporter for Indymedia in New York, Bolivia and Brazil, died today of a gunshot to the chest when pro-government attackers opened fire on a barricade in the neighborhood of Santa Lucia del Camino, on the outskirts of Oaxaca, Mexico. He died with his video camera in his hands.

Brad went to Oaxaca in early October to document the story that Commercial Media simulators like Rebecca Romero of Associated Press distort instead of report: the story of a people sick and tired of repression and injustice, who take back the government that rightfully is theirs. In that context, his assassination is also a consequence of what happens when independent media must do the work that Big Media fails to do: to tell the truth. My friend and colleague since 1996 when we labored together at 88.7 FM Steal This Radio on New York’s Lower East Side, I bumped into him again in Bolivia in 2004 during a public reception held by the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism, and again on the Yucatán peninsula last January where he came to cover the beginnings of the Zapatista Other Campaign – Brad died to bring the authentic story to the world.

(more)

http://narconews.com

[EFerrari]

7. Exactly. n/t

[Generic Brad]

8. This is simply horrible

My heart goes out to his family.

[robinlynne]

9. misleading article too. It was the police who killed those people. That is

stated clearly on the sites reporting from oaxaca. narconews and others....

[EFerrari]

11. Yup. Authorized Propaganda doing its job. n/t

[lpbk2713]

10. It's time for me to dust off my tinfoil hat ....

while thinking that this tells me how absolutely crucial it is that we get a Democratic Congress in place before the evil Boosh regime acquires more power than it already has.

[EFerrari]

13. Why wait? Practice today by emailing the American Embassy

and the Red Cross. Let's get those response skills sharpened up. We may need them for ourselves soon enough.

[arcos]

32. I'm not American, and I very much want a Democratic Congress...

But that won't stop this kind of things from happening... worse things have taken place with a Democratic President in the White House.

[MrPrax]

15. Attn 'Go Slow' Cauldron Trolls

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza said the armed group MAY have been police.


Brad Will’s Assassins, identified by El Universal: Juan Carlos Soriano Velasco (red tshirt), a police officer known as “the Grasshopper”; Manuel Aguilar (dark jacket), city personnel director; and public safety chief Avel Santiago Zárate (red shirt)
Photo: D.R. 2006 El Universal NarcoNews link

This is WHO you are Supporting!

These are the Men your Ambassador thinks isn't a death squad.

These are the MEN that the AP reporter couldn't bother to identify.

Do These MEN look like they have Respect for Democracy?

Do These MEN look like they will abide by a 'fair and free' election won by the Opposition?

How about these guys? You Trust Democracy and Security To These MEN?

[stepnw1f]

16. The Right Wing Once Again

Just like Nazis...

[IndianaGreen]

17. The only violence in Oaxaca comes from the government

either from the death squads and police run by the PRI governor, or President Fox's security forces.

Do a DU search on Oaxaca, and you will find a treasure trove of articles that were posted in DU that will give you a good background on this conflict.

[IndianaGreen]

18. Shootout in Mexican city kills U.S. journalist (IndyMedia reporter)

Shootout in Mexican city kills U.S. journalist

2 others also die in Oaxaca, where leftists are trying to remove governor

OAXACA, Mexico - A U.S. journalist and two Mexican men were killed by gunfire in the historic city of Oaxaca, where leftist protesters have barricaded streets and occupied government buildings for five months in a bid to oust the governor. Several other people were injured.

The gunfire erupted in a rough Oaxaca neighborhood when armed men tried to remove a blockade set up by protesters who are demanding the resignation of Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz, said a police official who was not authorized to speak on the record. Both sides fired but it was not clear who shot first, he said.

Bradley Roland Will, 36, of New York, was shot in the abdomen and died at a Red Cross hospital, police, witnesses and friends said. Will worked for Indymedia.org, an independent Web-based media organization and also sold video footage on a freelance basis, said friends and Indymedia colleague Hinrich Schuleze.

<snip>

Will had been documenting the upheaval in Internet dispatches for nearly a month. His reports showed he had strong sympathies with the movements.

“What can you say about this movement, this revolutionary moment,” he wrote in a dispatch dated Oct. 16. “You know it is building, growing, shaping, you can feel it, trying desperately for a direct democracy.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15453037 /

[Viva_La_Revolution]

20. Has his death finally brought this story to the MSM?

The Mexican Elections have been disputed for months, Mexico City has been shut down by protests. A revolution movement has been growing there for a while.


RIP Bradley Roland Will.

[EFerrari]

22. Only in the Official form. Rebels are creating violence, you know.

[IndianaGreen]

24. As in the lead off to the Iraq war, one must look outside the US to find news

Even the BBC is now beginning to give more coverage to this story.

[Judi Lynn]

23. It's a miracle we've heard anything whatsoever on this.

Looking forward to more news making it to us, somehow.

Breeze54 posted info. on this overnight, including a Reuters article on a thread which was moved to Editorials. He included another photo or two, as well here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

One of the articles on this murder mentions the reporter was doing the job we SHOULD have been able to expect to see from the main street journalists, had the right-wing not assumed control of our country.

There's a whole lot of people who would love to be informed of what is happening outside the entertainment world, and life as interpreted to us through the filter of the right-wing controlled American media.

[EFerrari]

27. I sent the AP "report" and the NarcoNews report to my local

news desk editor and pointed out, even the Ambassador says the shooters were identified as policement in civilian garb. Not a peep back, of course.

Thanks for the link. I saw it had been moved.

[IndianaGreen]

25. BBC: Mexico governor under Senate fire

Here is a BBC story about the man responsible for the mess in Oaxaca:

Mexico governor under Senate fire

Mexico's Senate has criticised the governor of the troubled southern state Oaxaca for failing to bring five months of violent protests to an end.

But the Senate rejected protesters' demands for Ulises Ruiz to be sacked.

A teachers' union which has been on strike as part of the action against Mr Ruiz says it will now return to work, but will still demand his resignation.

Protesters accuse him of abuse of power and election fraud. Eight people have died in the unrest, mostly protesters.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6069020.stm

[struggle4progress]

26. Thousands of police to quell Oaxaca protest

Mexico's president loses patience with a months-long blockade and sends troops to restore order in a tourist area.

Rebeca Romero, Associated Press
Last update: October 28, 2006 – 7:10 PM

... Protesters estimated 4,000 federal police had arrived ...

Friday's shooting began when gunmen tried to remove a street blockade in a rough neighborhood. Videographer Bradley Roland Will, 36, of New York, was hit in the abdomen and died later at a Red Cross hospital ... Mayor Manuel Martinez Feria of the nearby town of Santa Lucia del Camino said five men who appeared in newspaper photos brandishing pistols had been turned over to state officials. He identified them as two members of Santa Lucia's City Council, two of that town's police officers and a former justice of the peace from another town ...

http://www.startribune.com/722/story/773305.html

[EFerrari]

28. Miserable bastards. So, the murders have been turned over to

the men who hired them to shoot. How convenient for everyone.

Thank goodness for the indy media or we wouldn't know jack about these abuses.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

29. Mixtec Skull found at Monte Alban

in the valley of Oaxaca





The story of Mexico is old and long. Throughout the country, a variety of civilizations would rise to prominence at different times in different areas. Archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation as far back as 50,000 BC. Agriculture and communal living developed by 1500 BC. The high point of civilization in ancient Mexico was during the period between 200 BC and 900 AD, during what is referred to as the Classic Period.

During the Classic Period, cities and religious centers were built throughout Central Mexico, the Yucatan and Guatemala. These cities were as grand as any city in ancient Europe. The area comprising the Mexican State of Oaxaca was the site of one of the first cities of the Classic Period. The ancient city of Monte Alban is close to the modern city of Oaxaca, about 350 miles south of Mexico City. It was built by the Zapotec people, who were among the first civilizations to develop a 365-day calendar and a primitive form of writing. The city had pyramids, temples, markets and large populations of people. However, by 900 AD, the city had been abandoned. There are many theories as to the reason or reasons that led to the city’s abandonment, but nothing is known for sure.

Shortly after Monte Alban was deserted, the Mixtec people arrived. Although the city had been abandoned, the Zapotec people continued to live in the area. The new arrivals were welcomed and intermixed with the Zapotecs. This new culture is best known for their jewelry and the historical records they created.

In the late 1400’s the more aggressive Aztecs arrived, however they were unable to completely dominate the area. One hundred years later, the first Spaniards arrived, eventually controlling the area just as they controlled the rest of Mexico.

Oaxaca reflects the indigenous portion of Mexico. It is the Indian Mexico, with the largest population of indigenous people of any Mexican state. More people here speak indigenous languages than anywhere else. Although Spanish is the primary and official language, Zapotec is the dominant Indian language.

During the 1920 revolution against Spain, Oaxaca remained loyal not to Mexico, but to Spain. Unlike other areas in Mexico under the Spaniards, the Indian villages had managed to retain their autonomy, (control over themselves) and therefore saw no reason to revolt against the Spaniards. Despite not joining in the revolution, two of Mexico’s greatest leaders came from Oaxaca, Benito Juarez and Porfirio Diaz.

Today Oaxaca is one of Mexico’s poorest states. The area remains a land of small towns and villages. The economy is primarily agricultural and the land is held in common by the people with local leaders making the daily decisions.

[Judi Lynn]

30. Houston Chronicle:Fox issues ultimatum to Oaxaca protesters

Oct. 29, 2006, 1:37AM
Fox issues ultimatum to Oaxaca protesters
Already bloody standoff reaches a boiling point as feds step in


By DUDLEY ALTHAUS and DANE SCHILLER
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

OAXACA, MEXICO — The endgame approached Saturday to the five-month standoff that has seized the picturesque capital of Mexico's southern Oaxaca state.

With thousands of federal police and hundreds of army troops flown in in preparations for retaking the city center, President Vicente Fox's government issued an ultimatum to protesters to immediately abandon the barricades they've constructed.

The protesters — striking school teachers and activists from an array of mostly leftist social organizations — vowed to stand firm.

"We're not going to use firearms, but we're going to resist as best we can," said Florentino Lopez, serving as spokesman for the protesters' umbrella organization, which is known by its initials, APPO.

"We will not hand this city over to the federal government. They have killed our brothers. They aren't welcomed on our land."
(snip)

The bloodshed prompted U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza to reissue a warning telling U.S. citizens to avoid travel to Oaxaca.

"Mr. Will's senseless death, of course, underscores the critical need for a return to lawfulness and order in Oaxaca," Garza said in a statement. "The fact that Mr. Will was a journalist attempting to report on the violence in Oaxaca so that the general public could be more aware of the situation there makes his death all the more lamentable."
(snip/...)

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4295142.html

[Peace Patriot]

31. The protesters have been entirely peaceful throughout. It is very important

for everyone to understand this, especially given the corporate news monopoly spin that somehow the PROTESTS are "violent." ALL the violence has come from Uribe's (the fascist, illegitmate governor's) paramilitaries, and has no doubt been designed in collusion with Fox/Calderon as an excuse for unnecessary repression and brutality against the peaceful citizens of Oaxaca. The Oaxacans are NOT disorderly. They have BROUGHT order to an extremely disorderly, corrupt and violent state government. Last June, Uribe unleashed brutal police power against SLEEPING teachers, who were on strike, camping out. This is what sparked this peaceful uprising, in which the people set up their own government, as they are entitled to do under Mexico's Constitution in circumstances of severe repression. They have harmed no one. They have continually petitioned the federal government to remove Uribe, whose election in 2004 was fraudulent, and who is running the state with paramilitary death squads, who have been killing, kidnapping and torturing innocent people. Their other demands are for simple justice--decent salaries, help for the poor, consultation with local people on government policy.

I am just sickened by the slimily clever ways that corporate news monopoly reporters try to make this sound like a generally violent and disorderly situation on all sides. It is a lie.