By Casa Chapulín

October 29, 2006. 10am.

PFP helicopters circle the city. The radio urges people to go outside with mirrors to blind the helicopters. We watch from our roof as, all around our house, old women and small children hold up their mirrors as the helicopters fly overhead. The valley below us is filled with the constant glitter of bright light from citizens doing the same.

The night was long and filled with anxiety for Oaxaca’s citizens. Glued to our radio, we listened to their calls for peaceful resistance and reinforcement at the barricades under attack. At 2am there was an urgent knock at our door- a friend who had been at a nearby barricade had run for his life when an estimated 40 priistas showed up and opened fire.

We are shocked and appalled at the recent attacks on barricades in the city of Oaxaca, which led to the death of three APPO sympathizers and one American journalist Friday, October 27th. More than fifteen people have been killed since June 14th, the day when the state police, using tear gas, firearms, and dogs, attempted to remove the protesting teachers from the zócalo. Assassinations, illegal detentions, and intimidations have occurred not only at the barricades, but also in broad daylight near the homes of teachers and social movement participants and around peaceful meetings of civic associations.

Every morning, news of shootings by local police dressed as civilians and priistas against the barricades spreads over the city. Some news comes as a rumor, some appears in the papers. The spin in the international media has been simplified and biased. Thousands of women teachers embroidering under the tarps, with modest demands for improvements in education and authentic democracy in Oaxaca, have been depicted by some media as subversive radical leftists prone to violence. In contrast, the groups of hitmen have been portrayed as honest citizens tired of barricades, violence and graffiti. These hitmen, among them local police dressed as civilians, are, in fact paramilitaries paid by the state governor. The media has consistently discredited the social movement, which seeks to open up a democratic space where different cultures and ideas can converge to shape the future of Oaxaca. Diverse voices merge in a unique recognition of the plurality of Oaxacan society: indigenous people, middle class teachers, businesses, students, artists, academics and civic associations call for change.

Notable is the tenacity and the will of the people of Oaxaca to achieve the resignation of Ulises Ruiz and enact a process of social change, despite the campaign of intimidation the state government has led. Together with the Section 22 teachers’ strike and the APPO’s barricades, a strong movement towards active citizenship and authentic participation has begun to develop.