Human Rights Questioned in Oaxaca

[Joanne98]

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B27D0FD87-A1DF-4E13-93B9-054043009866%7D)&language=EN

Human Rights Questioned in Oaxaca

Mexico, Dec 28 (Prensa Latina) Jose Luis Soberanes, chair of the National Human Rights Committee (CNDH), will present a preliminary report on the latest incidents in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

According to CNDH, since the beginning of the conflict in June that territory has reported 349 people arrested, 40 injured, 20 homicides, including the death of a US reporter, nine cases of torture and 25 abdications.

Early December, social organizations and relatives of detained and missing people demanded in front of the UN headquarters the intervention of observers and reporters to end to human rights violations.

They assured that in that southern state the federal police are unfairly and arbitrarily arresting people, including those who do not belong to the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO).


sus ymr vm mf

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B27D0FD87-A1DF-4E13-93B9-054043009866%7D)&language=EN

PL-

[Judi Lynn]

1. Personal experience of an arrested Oaxacan prisoner: "I'm Going to Stay Right Here"

December 28, 2006

The Story of a Oaxacan Movement Prisoner
I'm Going to Stay Right Here
By HILARIA CRUZ

~snip~

Hilaria: Please give us your personal information, if you wish.

Okay, my name is Dionisio Martinez Luis. I'm 42 years old. I'm married and I have a 7-year-old son.

Hilaria: What were the circumstances of your arrest?

I was arrested the 25th of November between six-thirty and seven o'clock at night in the garden called Pañuelito which is located beside the church of Santo Domingo de Guzman in the historic center of the city of Oaxaca.
When they arrested me I was walking with an artist friend named Juan de Dios Gomez Ramirez, whom they also arrested and who was released as I was.

When they arrested us they forced us onto the ground and they started to beat us brutally with toletes, a long, thick club that members of the PFP carry. They hit us in the head and all parts of the body, and in fact they broke one of my ribs, which is still healing. Women and men were savagely beaten. At that time, when we were thrown to the ground to prevent anyone from putting up resistance, behind the PFP there were units with assault rifles, firing shots in the air and of course no one could put up any resistance.

Hilaria: What happened after you were thrown down in the Pañuelito garden?

Well, after they beat us they took us to the zócalo to the side of the cathedral and there they gathered us with our hands tied behind us, lying face down. There we told them our names, where we lived, and there they started to insult us, and off and on they would beat us. After that they sent us to some trucks, which appeared to be white. I went in one of these trucks with ten compañeros. We were piled in face down with our hands tied behind us. When we got into the truck they checked us completely and they took away my wallet in which I had four hundred pesos. They also took my cell phone, my watch, and everything, absolutely everything, right down to the loose change I was carrying. They did this to everyone they arrested. They stated cutting the hair of those who had long hair, using a knife, and in that truck we were transferred to what we later found out was the prison of Tlacolula.

Hilaria: Did they continue torturing everyone on the way to the prison of Tlacolula?

In the truck approximately 10 military watched us. They would put their boot in our faces and on all parts of the body. They continued insulting us. One of them had a container of gasoline and started to splash us with gasoline with his hand and another had a lighter and they were telling us they were going to set us on fire, and they were telling us: this is it, you're in for it now. The entire trip in the truck they were hitting us in the head and scaring us every so often. Many compañeros were complaining although they tried to be strong. This kind of treatment lasted almost an hour during the entire trip from Oaxaca to Tlacolula.
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/cruz12282006.html

[Joanne98]

2. That's horrible.

[Vidar]

3. Thanks for the update, Joanne98.