By Anna-Reetta Korhonen
On April 7, 2008, two women broadcasters from a community radio station that had only been airing for two months were assassinated. Sixteen year-old Teresa Bautista Merino and eighteen year-old Felicitas Martinez Sanchez were broadcasters of a community radio called ”The Voice that Breaks Silence” in an indigenous Triqui village.
The assassinations occurred only two days before the State Forum for the Defense of the Rights of Indigenous Pueblos, to be held in Oaxaca City, which had community-controlled media as one of its central themes. Teresa Bautista Merino and Felicitas Martinez Sanchez were to facilitate the discussion on community radio in this conference.
Jorge Albino, spokesman of the autonomous municipality San Juan Copala and coordinator of the radio, affirms that the assassination of the young women was clearly premeditated. “The girls were assassinated when they were returning to their village, after announcing this conference in a neighboring village. The paramilitaries cut off their vehicle and fired directly at the women. The driver, his wife and their son were wounded.”
San Juan Copala is, in many ways, a special case. The municipality declared itself autonomous at the beginning of 2007 and the village has a history of many internal conflicts.
Albino accuses paramilitaries linked to the Popular Unity Party that governs in the Triqui region. “The attorney general knows who is responsible. The driver also recognized the killers. We demand that the attorney general investigate the case thoroughly and puts those responsible behind bars.”
According to Albino, political parties are dividing the region, whereas the radio attempts to bring peace. “Radio is a very important tool in uniting the region. These assassinations were a message. Their aim was to silence the radio, to repress us, to get rid of us altogether.”
Albino says that the community is tired of the government trying to decide what’s best for them. If the government brings resources to the area, the community should have a say regarding how to use them.
“Political parties want to us see each other as enemies. That’s why we don’t want them in our region. We see that autonomy is the only way to peace. Autonomy means that we have the right to govern ourselves, to practice our own culture, to dress in our way, to speak in our way and to work in our way. We want a doctor who comes to our region to learn to use natural medicine, and a teacher who comes to our region to teach our mother tongue. This, for us, is autonomy.”
According to Albino, the assassinations will not silence the radio. The radio will continue, even stronger than before in honor of the women.
The murdered women were particularly active in the radio. One was engaged, and before she got married she wished to do as much as possible for the radio. The women had recently created a spot for the radio that today, sends chills down the spine: “The government thinks that we’re too young to know the truth. They should know that we’re too young to die.”
