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20 de Diciembre, 2006
OAXACA: what happens in the space of darkness?
Categorized under Globalización , Oaxaca , Raza , Resistencia | Tags: APPO, indigenous, Mexico, Oaxaca, Police Brutality, Power to the People, resistance, Ruiz
THE BUSH JUNTA is not the only gang that does not understand that you cannot forever stomp all the bollweevils under the putting green for your happy, greedy, golf game; that you cannot trick justice into the minds of the masses, or scare people into happiness, or wring gratitude from the rabble using a heavier police hand. The violence of Oaxaca's Governor Ulises Ruiz, the Federal Preventive Police (FPP), and the government of Mexico against its own citizens is—according to some local testimonials— only serving to make the APPO more appealing to those people abused by the harsh police forces that have been loosed upon them. The protestors that have been locked up behind the Oaxaca actions are now speaking out and talking about the physical violence they have suffered at the hands of the State Police.
| Democracy Now! producer Elizabeth Press is in Oaxaca with journalist and Global Exchange Human Rights Fellow, John Gibler. They filed this report.
On Saturday, for first time since teachers began striking, the State Police were back in charge. The very next day 2000 women marched through the streets calling for the ouster of Ulises Ruiz, and the release of the 43 protestors arrested and detained. Two buses rolled into Madero park to awaiting crowds of many supporters. This was the first contact the arrested protestors had since their initial detention on the 25th of November. This would be the first time people had heard direct testimony from them. For example, A man named Ismael Estrada was walking with his wife in Oaxaca City when he was attacked by five or six FPP, and beaten very badly. It was about 6:00 in the afternoon on the day of November 25, when the operation took place near Santa Domingo between Reforma and Cinco de Mayo Streets at the [inaudible]. We couldn't do anything. About five or six of the federal preventive police attacked me and began to beat me with everything they had, kicking me and clubbing me with the police batons. Yes, here they split my head. I bled a lot. I was drenched in blood. In spite of that, they kept beating me.
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THE DIRTY WAR QUIETLY RAGES ON. The stores are being repainted, and the ubiquitous graffiti scrubbed clean, a semblance of normalcy returned, were it not for the continuing violence against the people of Oaxaca. "Arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances have been used by both state and parapollice forces since last August. These detentions have increased dramatically after the federal police crackdown on protestors 3 weeks ago, but then dropped off again when the state police themselves became subject to a federal raid. Human rights workers continue to press the issue of forced disappearances as one of their greatest concerns."
Yesica Sanchez has been documenting these disappearances. There is a moment when nobody knows where they are, when nobody knows why they have grabbed them and where they have taken them. This is completely terrifying, not only for the families, but for us, as well, because we don’t know if they can kill them, if they can torture them. The real fear is not the detention in itself, but the real fear is what happens in the space of darkness, where nobody knows if you can guarantee your life and safety. On Monday, three plainclothes gunman grabbed APPO members Florentino Martinez, Pedro Garcia and Otalo Padilla, from outside a teacher's union headquarters after leaving a teacher's meeting. The gunmen identified themselves as members of the Death Squad—the State Police convoys that wounded and killed protestors in August. The plainclothes gunmen surrounded the three men with vehicles, brandishing assault rifles and pistols, and then dragged them into a van. For over and hour they beat them mercilessly and threatening to kill them.
The gunmen threatened to shoot them, fly them over the ocean and throw them out of a plane, but after they were done, instead, they threw them out of the truck, and kept all their possessions, including an expensive laptop. One woman interviewed by Democracy Now! tells of her own experience, physical and mental. "The worst moment for me was the day they detained me. The teargas, the police. They tied me up. I didn't understand anything. I didn't know what was happening. All 21 days were terrible. I didn't know what the APPO was or the teachers’ union. I didn't know anything about them. Now, I am determined to join them, because the government made me suffer so much. I’ll join them to help get rid of the government, because I don't want this government anymore. They not only made me suffer, but also made my whole family suffer. ... I don't want my grandchildren to suffer what I've suffered." I don't want this government anymore. They not only made me suffer, they made my family suffer. I don't want my grandchildren to suffer what I've suffered. |
APPO MEMBER: [translated] "They were beating us throughout the trip. My friends were hit in the head. I could hear them screaming in pain. They were constantly stepping on our heads."
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Comentarios (2)
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