By The Oaxacan Human Rights Network

Oaxaca, Mexico, 27 October 2006
Urgent Action from the Oaxacan Human Rights Network

Attacks on Barricades Increase Violence and Provocation against the Population

The Network of Human Rights expresses its concern and alarm at the increase in violent acts systematically carried out against the citizens and sympathizers of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) in the barricades of Oaxaca City.

Today during the course of the day, there were several shootings at barricades, instigated by priistas in different places around the city and nearby municipalities, which puts the mobilized population and citizens who live near these places at serious risk.

ACTS OF VIOLENCE

At approximately 9:30 am the barricade at Colonia 5 Señores, on the road to the Neighborhood Rosario, next to the Secondary Technical School Number 139, a group of approximately 10 policemen circled in a Black Jetta without a license plate and a van with license plate TJM6561, fired guns at the people they found in the barricade. Sr. Gerardo Sanchez Ramirez, 34 years of age, was detained. He has been localized in the women´s prison of Tanivet, in Tlacolula de Matamoros, accused of attempted homicide, according to the Secretary of Citizen Protection.

Unknown subjects shot at the installations of University Radio, which members of the APPO maintain control over.

In the afternoon there were four shots at the same time, with a total of 4 deaths and several wounded.

In the State Justice Department in San Antonio de la Cal, there were various confrontations and seven people were reported to have bullet wounds including Guillermo Garcia, Francisco Angeles, Martin Olivera Ortiz and Enendino Cruz Sanshez. At night a new confrontation was registered, provoked by priistas armed with long guns, wounding a teacher at approximately 8:25p.m

In the Colonia Lopez Mateos, priistas detained a woman by the name of Alejandra Soriano Pantoja, coordinator of the barricade. They caught her, but were forced to let her go because of the people in the Colonia who followed them.

In the Colonia Calicanto, a vehicle was burned, which caused a confrontation in which priistas attacked people who were participating in the barricades. Upon the arrival of the media, shots were heard from the upper part of the colonia. The journalist Bradley Roland Will of Indymedia New York, who had been documenting the situation in Oaxaca for one month, was wounded with two 9mm shots, one in the stomach and the other in the abdominal aorta. He died on the way to the Red Cross because of the gravity of his wounds. The Milenio photographer, Oswaldo Ramirez was also wounded. It has been confirmed that the aggressors were municipal police.

We have reports that in the afternoon, in the Colonia Santa Lucia, groups of people tried to take down the barricades and blockades that surround city.

During the afternoon in Santa Maria Coyotepec, the municipal president arrived with a large group of people to forcefully remove the protestors in the encampment in front of one of the biggest government buildings. They burned the encampment of the teachers, which caused a serious confrontation that continues to present. A vehicle without license plates, but with the registration number TJJ5521, was identified with two people inside who were involved in the provocation.

At present several are reported wounded and three dead. Emilio Alonso Fabian, a teacher from the coastal region, was shot three times. Esteban Zurita and one other unidentified person were also killed. The situation is very tense due to the fact that wounded people detained in the municipal prison and police headquarters are being denied medical attention.

Because of the seriousness of the aggressions in Oaxaca, clearly carried out by the state governor and with the participation of members of the police force, people’s lives, physical and psychological integrity, and, in general, human rights are put at risk.

In light of these violations, the Oaxaca Network of Human Rights demands that:

-Armed attacks against barricades stop. These actions worsen the critical situation in Oaxaca. They threaten the physical integrity and the lives of the demonstrators, whose principle victims continue to be sympathizers and journalists.

-An in-depth investigation be conducted regarding the participation of members of the police force in these acts of provocation; the parties responsible for these acts be determined and punished according to the law.

A violent response to the conflict is unacceptable. The forceful removal of barricades only incites confrontation among the population and causes greater social polarization.

Please send urgent actions to:
VICENTE FOX QUESADA

PRESIDENTE CONSTITUCIONAL DE MÉXICO

FAX. + 55 52 77 23 76, vicente.fox.quesada@presidencia.gob.mx

LIC. CARLOS ABASCAL CARRANZA
SECRETARIO DE GOBERNACIÓN
FAX + 55 50 93 34 14, cabascal@segob.gob.mx

DR. JOSÉ LUIS SOBERANES
PRESIDENTE DE LA COMISIÓN NACIONAL DE DERECHOS HUMANOS
FAX + 55 56 81 71 99, correo@cndh.gob.mx

LIC. ULISES RUIZ ORTÍZ
GOBERNADOR DEL ESTADO DE OAXACA
Fax: + 951 5020530, gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx