Dirty war cannot silence Oaxaca

BY CLAIRE URBANSKI

On Nov. 26, in Oaxaca’s city center, the sun rises after a long night of clashes between protesters and police. In front of the cathedral Santo Domingo, state governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz holds a broom, smiling in front of the cameras as he passes it back and forth a few times across the pavement. Until last night this spot had been the headquarters for thousands of protesters that make up the Peoples Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO). Around Ulises stand important figures of the state government, smiling approvingly and trying to suppress their coughs from the remnants of tear gas in the air. PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party and Ulises Ruiz’s political party) supporters join in on the opportunity for good publicity and sweep their brooms back and forth in front of the press.

City employees have worked all morning to clear the glass, rocks, bullet shells and blood from the streets. The fire department finally puts out the smoldering remains of the Supreme Court and the Secretary of Tourism. The city center’s walls are an odd mess of white paint blotches that attempt to hide the thousands of messages that have been scrawled during the last six months, which reveal the true feelings many Oaxacans harbor towards their governor and government. Helicopters and federal police patrol the area, arresting those who get too close, to ensure that nothing interferes with Ulises’ public statement that (with a few whisks of a broom) Oaxaca has “returned to normal.”

Meanwhile, porros (thugs hired by the government) freely roam the streets in pickup trucks armed with Uzis and AK-47s, hunting down those who have been active in the People’s Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO), sympathizers, and, in many cases, those who seem slightly suspicious. The illegal PRI radio station, self-proclaimed “La Ciudadana” (The Citizen), calls for “the real” Oaxacans to burn the homes of APPO activists, the offices of NGOs and newspapers, as well as urging neighbors to turn in sympathizers.

Three thousand more Federal Preventative Police (PFP) have arrived in the city to supplement the 4,000 already stationed in Oaxaca. Thousands have gone into hiding, afraid to leave and afraid to stay. People are wary of one another, as the evidence of infiltration leaks everywhere. Many have been bribed by the government to betray the movement. The number of detained is around 200 and rises every day— many of these people have been sent to a high security prison outside the state of Oaxaca without any means of communication.

Oaxaca has escalated into an extreme state of terror and violence from what started out as a peaceful teachers protest. Every year, the Oaxacan teachers union goes on strike for better wages and better government funding for schools. This year, Ulises refused to negotiate with the union, and as a response, on May 22, 70,000 teachers occupied the city square. On June 14, the state government of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz sent in thousands of police, armed with clubs, rubber bullets, dogs and tear gas to violently displace the peacefully protesting Oaxacan teachers. Bertha Elena Muñoz, a prominent voice of Radio Universidad (APPO’s main source of communication with the people) emphasizes the degree of corruption in the government: “From the moment Ulises Ruiz took office, there were political assassinations, political prisoners and blatant robbery of public resources— practically in front of our faces.”

Until the last month, the city protected itself from common and state violence with a network of all night neighborhood watches and the establishment of over 2,000 barricades around the city. Ulises Ruiz and fellow PRIistas responded by committing endless acts of strategic violence, such as bombings in the guise of APPO to encourage the entrance of military force. Oaxaca became a mess of porros, paramilitaries and corrupt police in civilian clothing terrorizing the city. These groups are believed to be responsible for numerous murders. Indigenous elementary school teacher, Panfilo Hernandez, for example, was shot and murdered by men in an unmarked car as he left a neighborhood APPO meeting.
Since the events of Oct. 27, 2006, Oaxaca has moved rapidly into the spotlight.
On this day, the APPO called for a statewide strike and the day ended in four murders. One of those murdered was United States indymedia journalist Brad Will, who had been filming a documentary about the APPO and the teachers’ strike. Two Oaxacan municipal police who were filmed shooting at the place and time of the victims’ murders were arrested for the crime, but due to the protection they receive from the government, were released several days ago.

The international attention Will’s death received influenced the decision of Vicente Fox to send in 4,000 PFP troops he had stationed around Oaxaca. Since the arrival of the PFP troops, arrests, disappearances, abductions, shootings and street battles have become commonplace. Human rights organizations have released reports of the brutal torture occurring against detainees. More than 600 arrest warrants have been issued and many who have participated in the movement do not sleep in the same bed two nights in a row.

Numerous teargassed and blood drenched street battles have taken place since the arrival of the PFP. On Nov. 2, the religious holiday of Day of the Dead, the PFP attacked the city’s most important barricade, Cinco Señores, which defends Radio Universidad. However, the people managed to repel the troops after seven long hours, establishing a significant victory of hope for the people.
The most recent and significant battle took place Nov. 25. It started with a mega-march of hundreds of thousands of people (the seventh of its kind) who made their way into the center, planning to form a peaceful human chain around the PFP in the city square and hold it for 48 hours.

However, this quickly took a wrong turn as rocks started flying from the side of the APPO. The PFP responded with a storm of tear gas then quickly upgraded to 9mm gunfire. Soon the PFP had the APPO surrounded on three sides, grabbing and beating those they could reach. Chaos broke loose, and numerous cars, buildings and houses were set on fire. While some of the destruction was carried out by members of the APPO, a significant part is suspected to have been perpetrated by infiltrators and porros. According to several sources, police waited at hospitals, dressed as paramedics, and arrested several wounded as they were brought in. All night the government worked with determination to completely erase and destroy the movement, including chasing, beating and arresting all of those who had been present on the streets.

The next day, the entire city was occupied by police, the street-based headquarters of the APPO cleared, and the dozens of elaborate murals and street art that had once painted the streets were covered with ghostly layers of white paint. PRI supporters and police are now free to roam the streets committing arrests, shootings, beatings, fire bombings and other attacks. The offices of APPO spokesman, Flavio Sosa, were burned and he was later detained in Mexico City. Another two APPO spokesmen, Cesar Mateos and Jorge Sosa Campos, were seen abducted by men in a car without license plates. The thousands of barricades once seen throughout the city have been removed and Radio Universidad has been silenced.

The Mexican government has made itself clear in its unwavering determination to silence Oaxaca and the rest of Mexico. The tactics the government uses in Oaxaca, (reminiscent of the 1968 repression of a massive student protest) have again proven successful with the majority of the APPO either in hiding or behind bars. International corporate media reports stories of youth in Oaxaca rioting and destroying the city, but nothing more, twisting perspectives in Ulises’ favor.
Oaxaca and the APPO represent the failure of the neoliberal development model carried out in Mexico. In light of this, caravans from all over Mexico had arrived in Oaxaca to join the struggle against an obsolete, oppressive government. The EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army), who struggle against corporate globalization and for indigenous rights, blocked off streets in Chiapas in solidarity. Since the formation of the APPO in Oaxaca, very similar organizations have formed in seven other Mexican states as well as in the United States. The struggle of Oaxaca has shown the potential for an alternative to the growing dominance of neoliberal policies. It achieves this through active citizen participation in the formation of concrete proposals regarding land, natural resources, education, state reform and culture heritage.

On Dec. 1, fraudulently elected Felipe Calderon was inaugurated as Mexico’s new president. At the same time, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Calderon’s opponent, announced himself “legitimate” president in Mexico City’s Zócalo, in front of millions of supporters. The country erupted into massive demonstrations and politicians broke out in fistfights at Congress. As Ulises Ruiz and the federal government evade serious negotiations or dialogue with the APPO, they have also evaded dialogue between Calderon and Obrador. State brutality remains the preferred solution to conflict.

While Felipe Calderon publicly states his zero tolerance take on all social movements, the EZLN calls for worldwide action on Dec. 22 in support of Oaxaca. Mexico faces a serious political and economic division with legitimate forces of resistance taking deep root all over the country. With the government avoiding its dire need for serious negotiation, collapse looms in the future.