PHA-Exchange> BAD news: Human Rights violation in Oaxaca, Mexico/INTERNATIONL PRESSURE NEEDED!

[Marcy Bloom]

> -----: HUMAN RIGHTS   VIOLATIONS  IN  OAXACA 
> 
> Please dsitribute to your network of English-speaking colleagues and
friends...Hopefully it is not a return to the very, dark days of Latin
American Human Rights violations some decades ago.....    
>   
> 
>   
> Subject: Fwd: [oaxacastudyactiongroup] FW: URGENT: HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
IN   OAXACA 
> 
> 
> 

Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 09:38:28 -0500 
> Subject: [oaxacastudyactiongroup] FW: URGENT: HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN
OAXACA 
> 
> PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY!!! 
> 
> >URGENT: HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN OAXACA 
> >November 9th, 2006 
> > 
> >Oaxaca is living a brutal government repression of the social movement, 
> >where there are disappearances, torture, detentions, killings, and many 
> >injured. Given the situation, it is difficult to know exactly how many 
> >people have been affected, but there is no doubt that there are severe 
> >violations of human rights. According to the Oaxaca Network for Human 
> >Rights (Red Oaxaqueña de Derechos Humanos ), from June 14th through 
> >November 5th, there were 145 detained, 34 of whom have been freed, 17
dead, 
> >and 33 seriously injured, including 5 journalists injured and one killed.

> >Some sources speak of 65 disappeared. There are numerous people who have 
> >also received death threats. 
> > 
> >Below is an interview with one of the members of the Human Rights 
> >Collective, working to defend human rights and documenting cases of 
> >violations. 
> > 
> >From the “planton” of Santo Domingo, Oaxaca: 
> > 
> >What is the human rights situation here in Oaxaca? 
> > 
> >Human rights basically do not exist here anymore. All human rights are
out 
> >of order. You can be at any moment kidnapped by people who call
themselves 
> >police. They can be mercenaries. They can put you in jail. They can make 
> >you disappear. And you don´t have any human rights. 
> > 
> >This is ironic because Mexico, this year, is in the human rights
leadership 
> >in the UN. They should watch and guard human rights, but they are the 
> >first to do away with them. 
> > 
> >What violations of human rights have there been? 
> > 
> >The violations can be killing them, torturing them, beating them. We have

> >now reports of people who were in jail. They were kept for two, three
days 
> >without any food, nothing to drink. They wanted to go to the toilet but 
> >they didn´t give them a toilet, just made them urinate in their pants,
this 
> >kind of abuse. They are threatening their families. 
> > 
> >And we also have numbers. We are talking about at least 45 disappeared 
> >people. We have the first report of people who saw with their own eyes
how 
> >a teacher was thrown out of a flying helicopter. Also we have a report, 
> >not verified yet, of a doctor who works in a hospital, who saw twenty
dead 
> >people the 2nd of November (the day of a major confrontation between 
> >government and popular forces). This was in a hospital of Oaxaca. 
> > 
> >We are still in the process of verifying all this. There is a danger that

> >days go by and that a lot of these crimes cannot be proved anymore. 
> >Therefore, it is very very important that everybody join us, gives us a 
> >hand to document this. 
> > 
> >Is it known how these people were disappeared? 
> > 
> >Some were kidnapped from their houses. The police entered in the middle
of 
> >the night, at one, two in the morning, without arrest warrants, and they 
> >took our compañeros away. Others disappeared from the barricades. Others 
> >we know were walking on the street and they took them away also. Others 
> >disappeared last Sunday, when there was a march here in Oaxaca and there 
> >was great national support. People came from Mexico City, Chiapas, and 
> >there were military checkpoints. There they also disappeared various 
> >compañeros. 
> > 
> >Do you have documented cases of people who have been killed or detained? 
> > 
> >We know that from the 14 of June (when the government repression began) 
> >until today, November 9th, there have been 17 dead people. We have the 
> >names of all of them, their age. Two were children, one a 14-year-old 
> >child and one a 12-year-old child. Detained, from the 29th of October 
> >(when the federal police force came in) until the 5th of November, we
have 
> >87 people who were detained. But one should say they were kidnapped 
> >because there were no arrest warrants. 34 of them have been freed. 
> > 
> >What information is there in terms of who is responsible for these 
> >killings? 
> > 
> >We know that the responsible is the government of the state of Oaxaca, 
> >Ulises Ruiz (the “governor”), and some of his police force, dressed in 
> >civilian clothes killed some of the 17 people. Some of the 6 people who 
> >have been killed in the last few days were killed by the PFP, the federal

> >police force, which was sent in on the 29th of October. 
> > 
> >Besides this, we are getting everyday reports of shootings at the 
> >university campus, where Radio Universidad is. It´s almost a daily
affair. 
> > People come and take out their guns and shoot at the students. 
> > 
> >What are the efforts that are being done to protect human rights? 
> > 
> >Here, we are working hard with volunteers and lawyers. We have a 
> >collective. First we try to locate the prisoners in the jails, and to 
> >liberate them. But the work has to go much further. We have to find the 
> >disappeared! The liberated come back and can report on the abuses, the 
> >violence, the beatings. But we are very very worried about the 
> >disappeared. 
> > 
> >What would you ask of people listening to you from other parts of the 
> >world? 
> > 
> >We ask for solidarity. You can create committees in solidarity and put 
> >pressure on your local politicians where you live and also demand from
the 
> >Mexican embassies and consulates wherever you are that human rights be 
> >respected here and to call an end to this violence. 
> > 
> >Aside from the detained, the disappeared, I already have seen with my own

> >eyes, people who are obviously traumatized, and who have psychosis due to

> >the violence they have witnessed. Yesterday, a woman came here who was 
> >crying, and the next minute she was laughing. This was the effect of the 
> >trauma that these people are suffering. Two days ago, a woman came by who

> >was participating in a peaceful women´s march, which passed the zocalo, 
> >where the police threw rocks and she ended up with her nose and mouth
torn 
> >up and bloody. 
> > 
> >There are many abuses. And here we cannot expect anything from the 
> >government, from the judicial branch, because they are the same people
who 
> >are committing these crimes. 
> > 
> >Anything else you would like to share? 
> > 
> >I would like to call on all the compañeros and compañeras of the world,
who 
> >hear this: international solidarity live on! The struggle of the people 
> >of Oaxaca is for a better world, and this is the same struggle that
people 
> >in the United States, in Europe, wherever they are carry on. 
> > 
> >Interview by Amanda Aquino, Indymedia. 
> > 
> 
> 



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