WHEN: DECEMBER 22nd 2006

WHAT: The EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army) has called for worldwide solidarity and demonstrations, in support of the Popular Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) and to protest against the brutal police repression they continue to face.

WE DEMAND:
• The removal of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and the Mexican Federal Preventative Police from Oaxaca City.
• The release of all political prisoners.
• Answers for those who have disappeared.
• A stop to government funded pirate radio station “La Ciudadana” that calls for government supporting citizens to turn in neighbors, form death squads and go after APPO and its supporters and to firebomb the homes and offices of news reporters, APPO and its supporters.
• The reinstatement of dialogues and negotiations between the APPO and the federal government of Felipe Calderon.
• The cancellation of the hundreds of arrest warrants against APPO activists, sympathizers, human rights workers and journalists.

WHY: In Oaxaca, a social movement that has been growing for over six months is now facing severe repression from their own government. The conflict, which started off as a labour rights movement, turned, on the 14th of June, into a political and social struggle when the governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, attempted to silence the teachers’ strike with fire arms.

Since then, a spiral of violence has escalated: political murders, disappearances, intimidation, and arbitrary detentions - carried out by state officials and paramilitary paid by the governor. This is how Brad Will was killed, and how many more Oaxacans have been and will be killed. The federal police (PFP) arrived in Oaxaca thinly veiled under the rhetoric of serving as a “peace-keeping force” but in fact have provided a smokescreen for the paramilitary’s dirty work.

During the demonstration on November 25th, the city of Oaxaca turned into a war zone. Demonstrators burnt cars and buses to defend themselves from teargas and bullets. Debates continue as to who burnt the Supreme Court and several other buildings. The police and paramilitaries randomly detained and beat demonstrators, chasing them in pick-up trucks. In addition to the many police dressed in civilian clothing (which has become all too common in the city) were police dressed as paramedics who waited outside the hospital. Several wounded demonstrators were left with “doctors” and found themselves in jail rather than in the hospital. The government reported 147 detained, the People’s Assembly of Oaxaca reported 400 missing.
Self-proclaimed Radio Ciudadana (Citizen Radio), the pirate radio funded by the governor’s party, has played a role in escalating the violence, calling people to burn down houses of known supporters of the movement and offices of NGOs and local newspapers, turn in neighbours and kill foreign journalists, activists and sympathisers.

According to Yessica Sánchez, the president of the Oaxacan section of the Mexican League of Human Rights, the majority of those detained are tortured and transferred to other state prisons without any means of communicating with their families or with lawyers. She stated that this scale of torture has not been seen in Oaxaca since the 1970’s. Yessica Sánchez now has an arrest warrant issued against her.

One such example of arbitrary detention and torture is that of a student from Instituto Tecnológico. The student, who had no involvement in the movement, was picked up while shopping with his mother. The police beat him badly, leaving him with a broken skull, ribs, shoulder, knee, elbow and fingers as well as burns on his chest and ripped out fingernails. He did not receive any medical attention for three days.

Those with outstanding arrest warrants, such as the 234 members of APPO’s council, fear the same treatment.

The goverment has either avoided or not taken seriously any negotiation attempts with the APPO. APPO spokesman Flavio Sosa was arrested in Mexico City on his way to reinstate negotiations with the federal government.
On behalf of the EZLN, Subcomandante Marcos has called for an international day of action to take place on the 22nd of December, in solidarity with the people of Oaxaca. In the words of the Zapatistas: “in any possible form, in any possible place, the truth must be said about what happened and what happens in Oaxaca. Everyone in their own place, time and way.”

Oaxaca is number one in Mexico for human rights violations. Over two thirds of the predominately indigenous population lives under the poverty line. Oaxaca is also rich in natural resources which has made it a target for neoliberal free trade policies (NAFTA, Plan Puebla Panama) that leave its already poverty stricken population landless, right less, culture less, penniless and starving.
The APPO aims to combat these injustices and it is clear that the federal government will do whatever is necessary to keep the people silenced.

HOW: Oaxaca and the APPO cannot survive without international solidarity, action and voice. WE ARE ALL OAXACA! On December 22nd, organize and raise your voices in solidarity with Oaxaca.