Report on the Human Rights Situation in Oaxaca, Mexico
Prepared by Robin Alexander

Introduction
January 4, 2007

From December 17 through December 21, twenty individuals (including human rights lawyers, journalists, authors, investigators, graduate students, and activists) from the United States and Canada came together in Oaxaca out of concern for what appeared to be serious violations of human rights. Over the course of five days we had the opportunity to meet with a variety of Oaxacans who shared their experiences with us regarding violations of civil and human rights since June 14, 2006.

Some were activists; others had simply been present during mass arrests. We heard numerous, highly credible accounts of beatings, psychological and physical abuse, intimidation, disappearances, killings and attempted murder perpetrated by the municipal, state and federal preventive police forces. Virtually every person who recounted their experiences with the police began to cry while telling us what had occurred. There is no way to convey how deeply moving and profoundly disturbing it was to listen to these accounts. In addition, we were told of threats and attacks on lawyers who were engaged in representing victims as well as against organizations committed to the defense of human rights.

This report provides some background regarding the roots of the conflict based on presentations and discussions in Oaxaca as well as published accounts in the media, and summarizes the testimony received regarding human rights violations.

I wish to thank the many people who took the time to help us understand the situation in Oaxaca and especially those who shared their personal experiences with us, recognizing both the courage and pain implicit in stepping forward. Few names appear in this report in an effort to protect those people in a small way from the repression which continues to exist.

This report does not attempt to formulate or propose political solutions, as these are properly left to those in Mexico. However, it is my hope that many people will take the time to read this report and to do what they can both to support the people of Oaxaca as they walk the path towards a real democracy, and to make the governments of Oaxaca and Mexico aware that the world is watching and that we condemn the violations of civil and human rights which have occurred and will continue to bear witness, to publicize and to assist in the redress of such violations.

A letter to President Calderón, sent on January 4 by the General Executive Board of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) follows, together with information about how to send financial assistance to Oaxaca.

Cultural and political Background
As illustrated dramatically by the last election, Mexico is a country which is deeply divided in terms of politics, culture and race. The more prosperous states in the North with a more mestizo or light skinned population enjoy strong economic ties with the United States and were strong supporters of the conservative National Action Party (PAN). In contrast, the poorer, more indigenous southern part of the country supported the center left alliance which included the Party of the Democratic revolution (PRD), Workers party (PT), and Convergencia.

Oaxaca is one of the largest states in Southern Mexico, with eight cultural and geographic regions, eighty micro-regions, and a population of approximately 3.5 million, according to the 2000 census. It has an ancient and very rich culture, and together with Chiapas, is one of the states with the highest indigenous population; 70% consider themselves indigenous. Oaxaca is home to sixteen indigenous peoples as well as to African groups on the coast. This diversity is manifested in 15 languages plus other dialects, and of the 40% who speak indigenous languages, most are monolingual.

It is the second poorest state in Mexico, with 76% of its people living in poverty or extreme poverty, and many homes lacking basic services such as potable water or even cement floors. Educational levels are low (6.4 years compared to an average of 8 years nationally). The lack of employment, especially in agricultural areas, has created a crisis for many families. One response has been migration, with approximately 150,000 people migrating each year to the North or to the United States. Large Oaxacan communities can now be found in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Texas, Florida, New York and New Jersey, and while many of the earlier migrants were men, today the migration of women has grown to 45%. In one community we visited, the local human rights organization spoke of “phantom communities,” where the young people finish a year or two of high school and then migrate, and where more than half the community has left.

Politically, Oaxaca is also complex. The state is comprised of 570 municipalities, and has long been a stronghold of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which had governed Mexico for 71 years, until defeated in the federal elections of 2000. While the PAN and PRD had made significant inroads elsewhere, until the 2006 election the PRI had maintained absolute control in Oaxaca through a system of local caciques and pervasive corruption.

Opposition was treated harshly by the PRI, whether from social movements, alternative political parties or even media which dared to criticize the existing order, as in the case of the Oaxacan newspaper Noticias, whose offices were occupied. The repressive policies of the previous governor, José Murat, were evident in the election of 2004, where blood was shed both within and outside the PRI. As described in the November 1, 2006 Washington Post, “On election night in 2004, he was trailing [opposition candidate Gabino Cue] when a computer glitch shut down the counting. When the counting resumed, he was on top.” The election was challenged on a variety of bases, and although the electoral tribunal eventually ruled in favor of Ulises Ruiz, the widespread belief in the illegitimacy of the election remains an underlying source of political instability. His credibility was not improved by his approval of the takeover of Noticias, the arrest of leaders of NGOs and social movements and his decision to arrest Cue, the opposition candidate in the race for governor, which generated massive demonstrations, or by unpopular changes to “symbols of Oaxaca,” including the Zócalo. Rather than resolving the demands of civil society through negotiation, Ruiz’ government continued on the path of repression.

However, Oaxaca is also home to a very different sort of political organization - a democratic tradition which was practiced in its many indigenous communities, and is rooted in communal organization. Eighty five percent of the land is held communally, much of it legally recognized by Spain, pre-dating the ejidos created by the Mexican Revolution. Communities made decisions through town meetings in which they selected their own leadership, assigned responsibility for communal work such as building roads, schools, bridges, etc., implemented systems of unpaid civil and religious service as a means of integrating young people and training them to assume responsibility, and organizing fiestas as a way of sharing resources (the term guetza or guelaguetza is the Zapotec word for share). In 1995 the traditional practice of selecting community leaders was explicitly authorized by a state law recognizing governance by “usos y costumbres (customary practices)” rather than political parties, with 418 communities opting to continue their traditional system of governance.

Rural poverty caused by plummeting coffee prices, the lack of government investment in agriculture or technical support for small farmers, erosion and trade policies (all tariffs on corn and beans will be completely eliminated on January 1st, 2008, further exacerbating rural poverty in Mexico) have all contributed to increased migration and changes in the role of women. These, in turn, have created challenges for communities, and especially for women, as physical and psychological violence has increased. Yet, the strength of these communal traditions are clear: some practices have been replicated both in new communities in urban areas of Mexico and in the United States, and are reflected in broader forms of organization, such as the APPO: the Asamblea Popular del Pueblo de Oaxaca.

The Teachers’ Union, Local 22 of the SNTE
The Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE), the Mexican Teachers Union is the largest union in Latin America. As with the other “official unions” it is characterized both by corruption and by close historical ties to the PRI. Its general secretary for many years, Elba Esther Gordillo has been described as the most powerful woman in Mexico. After holding key positions within the PRI, she was removed from her post as congressional coordinator due to her close relationship with the PAN. She officially broke with the PRI this year and went on to form her own political party, which threw critically significant support to the PAN during the recent election. Her son in law, a man lacking experience, was recently appointed by Calderón as Undersecretary of Education, and many who are close to her have received appointments in the new administration in what has been widely viewed as political pay-back. Meanwhile, Gordillo created a new position for herself as President of the SNTE, which has continued to serve as her power base.

The struggle of teachers in Oaxaca began in May, 1980 as a fight to democratize their union, Local 22. SNTE’s General Secretary at that time, Carlos Jongitud Barrios, was Governor of San Luis Potosi, and other national union leaders were senators and deputies. The size of the union made it an important part of the corporativist political system, where the union turned its members out to vote for the PRI and local union leaders were imposed by the Ministry of Education during conventions policed by armed thugs. Thus, democratization of the union meant not simply confronting an employer, but taking on the local and national political establishment.

Large mobilizations in May, 1980 in Oaxaca were followed by the establishment of an encampment in Mexico City. After several months of conflict, intervention by the federal government resulted in recognition of the new leadership by the SNTE (albeit with the condition that the national committee could select the local’s general secretary), wage increases of 22%, a special bonus for rural teachers, and payment of lost wages. The local also developed guiding principles in the form of twenty norms as well as a structure to ensure democracy within the union, a rejection of corruption, independence from political parties, the democratization of education at all levels, among others.

However, it was only after many more years of mobilizations, marches and hunger strikes, at times with the support of parents and popular organizations, that the local succeeded in winning the right to hold its own conventions and govern its own affairs. This was accomplished through a structure which combined local delegate committees and consultation with “pre-conventions” at which the union’s program was debated and approved and officers were elected to various posts based on the number of votes they received. These decisions were then ratified at the formal convention where, according to the union’s constitution, the National Executive Committee participates. In other words, the union was able to create a system which enabled it to function democratically, while remaining within the structure and under the nominal control of the national union.

Local 22 also forms part of the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE), a democratic movement within the SNTE. Over a period of fifteen years, rank-and-file teachers in the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, and to a lesser degree in other states, as well as in Mexico City, succeeded not only in creating a mass movement, but more remarkably, in building an on-going national rank-and-file organization. La CNTE played a key role in bringing down the dictatorial regime of Carlos Jonguitud Barrios, head of Vanguardia Revolucionaria, the political machine that controlled the union. In 1989, as part of an agreement between the government of President Carlos Salinas and the various forces within the union, Elba Esther Gordillo became general secretary. Originally introduced as a reformer, she became an authoritarian union leader, and later an important political power broker.

Local 22 is one of the most important locals within the SNTE’s National Executive Committee, which puts it at odds with Gordillo, and at a financial disadvantage, as only a percentage of the dues collected from local members and sent to the national union are returned to the local, a matter of continuing controversy.

It is important to note that many teachers in Oaxaca are themselves indigenous, come from rural areas, and are close to the communities where they teach. As is to be expected in an organization of 70,000 members, various tendencies exist within the local itself, and allegations of corruption and, more recently, undemocratic practices, have badly split the local. Moreover, while many teachers are loved and respected leaders of their communities, others are said to be poorly trained or lazy, and the annual extended strikes which have characterized contract negotiations have also generated criticism.

Needless to say, the government itself has been quick to fan the flames of such discontent. Under these circumstances the overwhelming condemnation of the June 14 attack on the teachers was even more impressive. Nor is it surprising that the teachers’ movement has fractured under intense economic and government pressure for the teachers to settle and return to work, nor that the government has now approved the establishment of a second teachers’ union in Oaxaca – Local 59 – with the blessing of the national union. However, it is equally clear that many teachers remain active in APPO and the movement, and that it is a union which has a long history of militance in the struggle for democracy.

The Emergence of a Strong Popular Movement in Oaxaca
Between 1978 and 1992, the Mexican government, under pressure from the World Bank and USAID, decentralized the Ministry of Public Education (SEP). In 1992 the process culminated in the signing of the Basic Education Modernization Agreement (ANAM), transferring the previously Federal system to the states. Each state created its own Secretary of Education, a development later formalized and solidified by the General Education Law (LGE) of 1993. However each Federal Ministry of Education (and there were several) and each of the 31 governors interpreted the law differently in practice.

In Oaxaca, the PRI governors and their Secretaries of Education, found they had to negotiate with the PAN President, Vicente Fox and his Secretary of Education. Local 22 used its tradition of mass mobilization to get the attention of both. In May of each year the teachers’ union presents its demands and, in accordance with the Federal labor Law, authorizes a strike. This year there were 17 general points, as well as others having to do with shoes, uniforms and school supplies for low income students. As in 2005, the central demand was for re-categorizing the teachers from zone 2 to zone 3, based on the high cost in the area, as had been done with teachers in Chiapas some years earlier.

Dissatisfied with the response of the government, the teachers went out on strike on May 22, and with support from others established an encampment in the zócalo, or main square. The government’s response was a harsh media attack, and after five days an offer of slightly more than half of what had been agreed upon the year before. (We were told by various people that the money was being put into the election, and that Ruiz had promised one million votes to the PRI. If true, it was money poorly spent. For the first time the PRI was resoundingly defeated, losing the two majority senate seats to the PRD and Convergencia, and losing 11 of 13 seats in the House of deputies).

When its offer was rejected by the union, the government continued its media campaign and threatened to file suit against the teachers for having abandoned their posts and with replacing them. Then, on June 14, at 4:00 a.m. armed police, accompanied by dogs, attacked the teachers who were sleeping with their family members and other supporters in the encampment and assaulted them with tear gas. At the same time, they took over the offices and the hotel of the union, detaining a dozen people including those who had been operating the union’s radio station known as “radio plantón.” The police were subsequently supported by two helicopters, throwing grenades of pepper smoke and tear gas which affected not only the strikers, but neighbors and guests in nearby hotels. The tents were destroyed and burned by police in large bonfires. This also resulted in various detentions and disappearances as well as one spontaneous abortion due to exposure to tear gas.

While repression had been common, this sort of attack on sleeping people, affording them no notice or opportunity to leave, was unprecedented. At approximately 8:00 the teachers and other supporters re-grouped and armed mostly with sticks and pipes from the tents confronted the police and by 10:00 a.m. the police fled, leaving the teachers once again in control of the zócalo where, the following day, they re-established their encampment.

The violence of the police attack was broadly condemned by the population, which came together on June 17 - 21 to form APPO, an alliance which has come to include some 365 organizations, with common demands that Ruiz step down, and for an integral reform of the state of Oaxaca. Marcos Leyva, a leader of the NGO sector of APPO explained that the concentration of all demands in one, the destitution of Ruiz, was not directed against him simply as a person, but as the representative of an authoritarian political system that existed in Mexico for more than seventy years and in Oaxaca for even longer.

Leyva shared with us the perspective of NGO participants within APPO, explaining that APPO represents the convergence of various types of movements: social, ecological indigenous. He told us that APPO has two dimensions: “One is a political organization with leadership, internal organization and structure. Another is the dimension of spirituality, community, rebellion, and a spirit of struggle and resistance. This APPO was thirty years in the making. So even if the leadership is crushed, APPO is only an expression of what is underneath.” He also told us that APPO’s contribution is that it is not about leaders. He commented: “Maybe the mistake we made in the 60's and 70's was to think that there was one path. Our path comes from different truths coming together.”

In the months that followed, the movement grew, characterized by mega-marches of tens of thousands of people. On August 1st hundreds of women marched through the streets, and infuriated at the denial of an hour’s air time to express their concerns, took over the state-owned radio and television stations, opening the airwaves to opinion, discussion, and the generation of proposals for what was needed for the reform of Oaxaca’s institutions, musical programs and coordination of the movement.

Barricades were set up to protect the radio station and in neighborhoods after 9 or 10 p.m every evening to protect against the police in civilian dress who circulated in vehicles and engaged in shootings at night. They were erected every evening out of branches, stones, and cars.

Also in August, 1500 people from some fifty organizations came together in a forum on governability entitled “Building Democracy and Governability in Oaxaca,” with sessions covering the design of a new state constitution, creating democracy from below, movement inclusion and respect for diversity. In the closing ceremony, Former bishop Samuel Ruiz observed, “I am still not over my surprise not only for having been honored by an invitation to these events but also by having discovered a completely unforeseen situation which I have never experienced in all the long years of my life, or it might be that we are standing in two time dimensions, the past and the future. In these days we are living something that we are leaving, and cement is being placed beneath something that doesn’t come automatically but is the result of working together, of our construction. But I have seen also in the forum something unheard before, that suddenly in the forum not only is there very direct discussion of issues but it has gone a distance that never was foreseen, not articulated before… including that the future is here…”

The following day, August 18, at least 20 organizations stopped work, allying with unions of the teachers, the road and airport workers, the health workers, local and national unions of Social Security (welfare) workers, malaria prevention workers, and the workers and employees of the Benito Juarez Autonomous University of Oaxaca, the state university where the students in alliance with the movement took over the radio station.

On August 21st, the antennas of the government owned station were destroyed by its own police, leading APPO to take over 13 more stations, subsequently relinquishing all but two. One woman we spoke with explained: “We knocked on the doors of the stations and said that we have to take over this station to tell people what happened. We had the desire to speak and to share. It was necessary to take over the stations, not to incite violence, but to communicate and to defend ourselves.”

Meanwhile, the government started broadcasting through a clandestine station, Radio Ciudadana, naming people and encouraging people to shoot them.

On October 28 four people were killed, including indymedia journalist Brad Will and a teacher, Emilio Alonso Fabian. The following day, the federal preventive Police were sent into Oaxaca.

Then, on November 25th, the federal preventive police in full riot gear responded to provocateurs by firing tear gas into the crowd. The police had encircled the area some six to eight blocks away, so when people ran to escape the police and tear gas, many were picked up who had nothing to do with the march or with APPO.

Men and women were beaten, thrown face down and stacked on trucks. Of the 170 detained that day, 141 were subsequently transported to an airfield where they were taken by helicopter to Nayarit, some 745 miles away, far from their families for whom it was an expensive bus ride from Oaxaca. Of those arrested, 34 were women and five were minors (one 14, one 15), who were taken to the same adult-male facility.

Similar actions were taken against people coming from outside of the city to join the mega-marches; buses were stopped and passengers taken into neighboring fields where they were beaten before being loaded into trucks and taken to jail.

During the demonstration some government buildings were burned, but as pointed out by respected journalist Pablo Matias, “Nobody will believe that a Molotov cocktail was used to destroy documents that it would be useful to the government to have destroyed.” (The federal electoral commission was burned along with a building containing the audit of prior governor Jose Murat. Ironically, a few days before the attack, all of the archives had been moved with the exception of those documents. Physical investigation of the facility confirmed Madhouse’ conclusion that the fire had been set from within). This was also confirmed by some of the people we spoke with, including a student who described how they had heard some people who were “strangely insistent” about destroying the Hotel Camino real. He said they actually started a fire, but that other people stopped them and put it out.

The following week, some teachers were arrested in their classrooms, and people were dragged from their homes.

On December 3, the APPO issued a communique which called for a mobilization on December 10. It also stressed that the violence unleashed since November 25, “has not weakened our desire to be free men and women. Nor has it made us change our minds about whether our struggle should continue to be a political, peaceful, and mass movement, despite the fact that 17 people have been killed during this stage of the struggle, dozens of people have disappeared and hundreds are political prisoners.” It also announced a new stage of struggle called the “Stage of Peace with Justice, Democracy and Liberty without Ulises Ruiz Ortiz,” in order to “continue the struggle that the APPO is learning to build with patience, perseverance and wisdom.” Referencing the recent Forum of Indigenous Peoples of Oaxaca, where the “original peoples taught us... that the ‘path must be taken slowly,’” the declaration affirms that “is what we are doing now, without losing sight of the common objective, which is the profound transformation of living, working, academic and recreational conditions for our people.”

It is important to note that various guerilla groups have operated in Mexico over many decades and some continue to be active in the central and southern states such as Oaxaca and Hidalgo. One such guerrilla group, the Peoples Revolutionary Army (EPR), operated in Oaxaca. Oaxaca state and local officials have at times asserted and at other times denied connections between the guerillas, the teachers union and popular movements. Some commentators have argued that the EPR had infiltrated and even dominated APPO. No evidence has been brought forward to prove such a claim. The teachers and popular movements have denied EPR involvement, have repudiated violence and as indicated above, continue to call for a peaceful movement to remove Governor Ulises Ruiz.

Some views on the conflict from Oaxaca
We were told by the representative of an NGO: “If the agenda of society is not incorporated, the movement will grow. A major polarization has taken place. Closing off dialog will only leave violence.”

Another activist said to us: “We are engaged in a peaceful resistance. It is hard to resist this level of attack, but the people of Oaxaca have done so. Please take away with you this face of Oaxaca.”

Another person we spoke with observed, “Repression shows weakness because before they could buy people off; but they can’t anymore.”

When we asked relatives of prisoners if they were planning to participate in the march on December 22, one answered: “if you ask if we are afraid, yes, we are afraid, but our indignation and anger are even greater, because this is not the way to treat a people who are asking for justice. And we do not rise up because we are troublemakers, as they call us here, but rather because the people are hungry, the people are needy. Yes, we will participate in the march.” (As translated on Democracy Now, Friday December 22, 2006).

Testimony we heard
The National Commission for Human Rights issued its preliminary report on December 18, in which it concluded that 20 people had been killed, 370 injured and 349 imprisoned since June 2, 2006. We were told that many others have disappeared or are in hiding. The Commission reported that it had received 1,211 complaints regarding alleged violations of human rights due to the “improper use of the police forces, arbitrary detentions, people held incommunicado, disappearances, damage, injuries, threats and illegal raids,” concluding: "The parties [to the conflict] and the Federal Preventive Police, which intervened for the purpose of restoring public order, have used violence repeatedly and excessively. As a consequence, the institutional, social and cultural life of the state has been damaged."

What we heard through direct testimony was from a small number of those affected. I personally heard the accounts of 19 people, and some of our group heard additional accounts which are not included below. All of the people I met with were highly credible. Virtually all, both men and women, began crying while telling us how they had been picked up, beaten, and subjected to psychological torture, clearly still traumatized by what had occurred. Almost all of those who had been involved in the movement in some way made a point of telling us that they had been unarmed and were committed to a peaceful path to social change. Some noted their concern about instigators who acted to incite violence in order to damage the peaceful image of the movement. Others clearly had nothing to do with the movement.

Their stories were recorded and audio and in some cases video tapes of their complete testimony are available. Some of these testimonies have also been official documented by well-respected local, national and international human rights organizations. Here are a few details of their accounts. Unfortunately, these details do not begin to convey the horror of the experiences. Nor did we have the opportunity to speak with victims of who were reported by local human rights groups as having experienced more serious injuries or torture.

1. A student leader was detained by police wearing civilian clothing when leaving a movement radio station. He was hit on the head with a pistol, which left a gash in his face. He was told to write a false confession that he had a pistol and coke and was kicked and hit until he did so. He was also given the names of three activists and told to write that two had burned trucks and the third was the boss of the other two. He heard someone take off his belt and was asked if he had ever been fucked and how it felt. They subsequently sprayed something on his back which he understood they were going to set on fire, although they did not actually do so. Six days later he was finally released on bond and charged with theft.

2. The director of a boys’ boarding school was kidnaped near the university. He was hit and subjected to abusive language, and eventually taken to a military base. Although he wasn’t blindfolded, when he raised his head he was hit. He was accused of being the brother of Flavio Sosa and hit. He was kept on his knees with his hands tied, which was very uncomfortable. They kicked him four or five times and put a gun to his head. Eventually he was put on a helicopter and taken to a prison. While in flight, police threatened that they would open the back of the helicopter. He told us that he knew that he wouldn’t be killed but that others were really afraid, and that for him the hardest part was that his son was also picked up. He still has problems with his kidneys and ribs. He was detained for eight days.

3. A fifty year old widow was detained as she left her place of employment where she worked as a maid. She had just been paid and her money was taken and she was tied up and put with other women in a truck. It was really cold and one of the police said: “Die old ladies, there are lots of garbage cans where we can throw you.” Although she wasn’t beaten, both her sister and nephew were. She was detained for 21 days and told us that many women were still there. She said many didn’t speak Spanish, only Mixteco, and had only gone out to buy school supplies.

4. A mechanical engineering student had gone with his family to participate in the march and establish a plantón. Although the march was peaceful, police began to fire rubber bullets and both police and people in civilian clothing on roofs began to throw tear gas. The police were beating people, his friend had fainted, and the only air was near the police. The police were beating them, so he thought the best thing to do was to turn himself in. The police took his money, cell phone, bag and shoes and threw him on a pile of people. The police started kicking the soles of their feet, saying it was to keep them awake. Those on the edge received the worst treatment, as they were stepped on and their hair and ears were pulled. They were put in trucks, and questioned by police who kicked them, whatever they answered. The police also stood on top of them and jumped on them. They were asked who their leaders were, and told that they would be left in condition so bad that nobody would recognize them. It was unseasonably cold, so in the cell four slept in one bed to stay warm. Early the next morning they were taken in buses and a military truck to the airport. The plastic handcuffs were tied to tight he is still having problems with the circulation in his hand. At one point they pushed him so hard that the plastic broke, and when he got off the bus, the police hit them, kneed them and knocked him over. He told us that there were a lot of dogs and the police shook them to make them angry. He was released three days before he spoke with us, after having been in jail for 21 days. He concluded by saying that when he went back to his school he was told that he should go thank the government for getting him out, but he said, “How can they hit me like that and then have me thank them? But will there be consequences if I don’t...”

5. A 40 year old housewife, the mother of the young man above, told us how the march was peaceful, but that some students came by asking that they go farther down to create a greater presence so that the police wouldn’t start anything. But then the police started throwing teargas and clubbed her son twice with a baton and she threw herself on him to protect him. Her story was similar to that of her son, but she also said that the women had written up a document about bad treatment and when one of the women asked a guard about it, he responded: we ask the questions, you don’t have the right to ask questions, and didn’t give her dinner.

6. Florina Jiménez Lucas, a secondary school teacher with three children, was participating with her husband in the August 10 march when her husband was shot and killed. She permitted an autopsy to prove that her husband was not drunk, and it showed that he had been killed by nine bullets shot from different angles from above. She spoke about subsequent attempts at intimidation, taxis following her, how her door bell was rung at midnight and after that she heard footsteps on the roof, and that there were callers asking for her husband who hung up before she could take the phone from her children. She said that it was hard to return to the marches because for her daughter it meant that she, too, would disappear. When asked where she got her strength she said, “Sometimes I don’t know...but if we don’t struggle, they will always treat us like this.”

7. Around 600 people were going to Oaxaca by bus for the fourth march when they were stopped by the federal highway police. They were taken down one at a time and threatened and beaten. Their cell phones and cameras were taken from them. Molotov cocktails were found, which the person we spoke with believes to have been planted by the police. He was photographed with a gun that did not belong to him. Although he kept insisting on the right to make a phone call, he was not permitted to do so. He was interrogated, asked who paid him, financed him, what organizations he belonged to. He was subsequently told that the charges against him included robbery of the buses and having weapons: sling shots, marbles and Molotov cocktails.

8. A university student who was arrested affirmed that they did not have weapons, only papers, and that these were illegal arrests. He said two people were arrested for having union credentials, another for being the group’s spokesperson, one for wearing a Tai Kwan Do jacket, and that he believed that he was arrested for objecting, for having papers where he had written something about what was going on in Oaxaca, and for having UNAM identification. He said that some 200 armed Federal Highway Police stopped them, and hit them for three hours. They put blankets over them and kicked them, he explained, in order not to show marks. They brandished loaded weapons and told them they had three seconds to run. He said they suffered “physical blows and also with words.” When they were transported by helicopter, the police kept threatening to throw them out of the back of the helicopters and asking if they could fly.

9. A farm worker said they thought he was a soldier because of his hair cut, and that they were divided into groups based on how they dressed and talked. He was hit with a gun and after being taken to the offices of the preventive police was photographed with a gun.

10. A teacher spoke of having two friends turn up badly beaten.

11. Another person spoke about how frightening it was to have guns put to his head and to be threatened with being thrown out of a helicopter.

12. A woman spoke about how the police touched her breasts.

13. A few weeks earlier someone from the community was picked up, beaten, interrogated and then released.

14. A single mother of three described how she and her son, who is asthmatic, were sleeping in the barricades when the police attacked, hitting people and throwing tear gas. She said, “We were being hit. My son was turning purple. I thought he was going to die.” She said many violations occurred that night, with several women suffering miscarriages, but that the women didn’t want to talk about it. She and her son were able to get out and someone opened their door and fortunately there was a doctor who saved her son’s life.

15. We were given this account by a friend of the victim: he had gone to work and his friend went to a meeting. Afterwards his friend was shot by three men in a truck. He was hit by fourteen bullets, but four did the most damage. They leave, thinking he is dead. There were more than 200 bullet holes in the truck (we were given a xerox of the photograph of truck). He was a leader of his community and active in APPO and CODEP. He has had two operations, but needs two more.

16. Pablo Madhouse, a veteran reporter was caught up in the violence, along with a group of international journalists. He was visibly embarrassed that he began to cry while telling us what he saw on November 25: “I have seen attacks by the EPR, various people killed in land disputes, but this was different. I felt impotent, terrified. We didn’t know what to do... The international reporters had never seen anything like it. They were terrified. I think they left the next day. We could hear screams for five blocks... The city was all lit up. There were abuses, excesses.”

17. A bus driver had his window broken by a tear gas cannister. He was surrounded by police, and beaten on his legs and head, pushed on the ground, dragged, and verbally abused. He was then put on a bus with five other people, who were made to sit for about and hour with their hands on their heads while they were kicked and beaten. They were then stacked in the back of a truck, where the police sat on top of them, kicking them and making fun of them. He told us that the police threatened them, saying “your time is up” and “we are going to throw you out of a helicopter.” He vomited and was crying. It was only after he was put in jail that he received medical attention, food, a shower and a blanket. He remained in jail for over a month.

18. A woman told us of her brother, who was picked up with a friend getting in a taxi, after he had gone shopping. For more than a week he was unable to communicate with his family. He had been taken to Nayarit, where he was beaten, but fortunately not too seriously. Many were seriously beaten, she told us, some with internal injuries. Her brother remains in jail at Tlacolula.

19. Another young woman told us of her boyfriend: he was from another state, and had come to ask for her hand, as they were planning to marry on January 6th. On November 25th they had gone to the park and wanted to return to her house. There was no transportation because of the march, so they went downtown to catch a bus. When they got to Santo Domingo, people started yelling, “Run, run, the federal police are coming!” She told us that the police were throwing tear gas and they were choking, so that they couldn’t run. Her boy friend fell and some people helped him up. But the police got closer and they couldn’t move fast enough and captured him. She told of searching for him for two days in hospitals and on the lists of the detained. Almost a month later she saw him for the first time. He told her that he had been beaten, that the prisoners had been put on top of each other and driven around for three hours. When they were moved to Nayarit, they were still being beaten and were told that they would be put in a common grave and burned. It was only after he got to Nayarit that the beatings and threats stopped. He is still in jail.

The Failure to Curtail Impunity
The November 18, 2006 issue of the Economist cites attorney Bernardo León, an advisor to president Fox regarding judicial reform, for the following statistics: “Mexico has some 400,000 police in hundreds of different forces. On average, policemen have spent just six years at school, have received only two weeks training and are paid just $370 a month for the job...35% of them use drugs, and two-fifths leave each year.”

This dismal picture becomes even bleaker when one considers the testimony regarding plain-clothed bands of police acting as vigilantes. Moreover, a recent raid by the Federal Preventive Police on the headquarters of Oaxaca’s State police (PME) resulted in the confiscation of 341 weapons used by agents in crimes which were attributed to APPO sympathizers. Eight vehicles which had been reported stolen were also confiscated, and four police agents and one functionary from the Procuraduría General de Justicia (the state attorney general’s office) were detained. On December 12, two state police filed complaints with the CEDH (the State Human Rights Commission) alleging, according to La Jornada, that they “were aware of a verbal or written order to kill them, to punish them by mutilation, infamy, scourges, sticks and torment, but also to be judged without being heard or tried by a court,” for passing information to the PFP. While this makes it appear that the PFP is taking steps to address problems with the state police, it should also be remembered that very serious violations of human rights occurred under their watch, including those of November 25th.

General Ardelio Vargas is commander of the Federal Preventative Police and is also in charge of the Federal Investigative Agency (AFI), the Mexican counterpart of the FBI, an unprecedented concentration of police powers. Vargas was close to the new Attorney General, Eduardo Medina Mora when he headed up the CISEN or national security intelligence service.

The National Commission for Human Rights issued its preliminary report on December 18, in which it concluded that 20 people had been killed, 370 injured and 349 imprisoned. The report was criticized by the press and human rights groups for failing to recommend any actions. The import of this was later confirmed for us at a meeting with the Under-secretary for Human Rights of the State of Oaxaca, who conceded that there had been violations of human right, but said that her office could do nothing until some other entity issued recommendations for action.

More than six months after the conflict began, no such recommendations have issued.

Conclusion
We heard numerous, highly credible accounts of beatings, psychological and physical abuse, intimidation, disappearances, killings and attempted murder perpetrated by the municipal, state and federal preventive police forces. In addition, we were told of threats and attacks on lawyers who were engaged in representing victims as well as against organizations committed to the defense of human rights.

It was clear to us from what we heard and observed that grave violations of human and civil rights have occurred and that the intervention by the Federal Preventive Police greatly exacerbated the situation. Many of the serious violations occurred between the time that victims of such violence were picked up and the time they were taken to prison. The horror of that limbo was captured by Yésica Sánchez Maya: “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 or safety.” (As translated on Democracy Now, Wednesday December 20, 2006).

However, it is also clear that the violence against the population in the city and countryside continues as illustrated by the brief disappearance, beating and subsequent release of three APPO leaders on the evening of December 18th.

We therefor urge the governments of Mexico and Oaxaca to take immediate steps to resolve this situation, including:

We left Oaxaca deeply concerned about the violation of civil and human rights, the suppression of free expression, the criminalization of dissent, and the targeting of defenders of human rights.

1. The release of all prisoners still being held at Tlacolula, Miahuatlan or elsewhere;
2. An immediate halt to all physical and psychological violence and intimidation by all police as well as by those persons without uniform who have been engaging in serious violations of human rights;
3. A full and fair investigation of all abuses which have been alleged;
4. Respect for Mexican law and the constitution, as well as for international law;
5. A serious effort to reach a political solution and to resolve the issues which have been raised through negotiation and dialog rather than through repression.

Time Line

May, 1980: Formation of Movimiento Democrático Magisterial, later forming part of la CNTE.

August 2004: Ulises Ruiz Ortiz takes office as governor; many believe that outcome was due to electoral fraud.

November, 2005: Érika Rapp Soto, Finance Secretary is expelled from Local 22 along with some 200 teachers who were members of a commission charged with investigating acts of corruption, after charging General Secretary Enrique Rueda Pacheco and other union leaders with establishing bank accounts with union funds outside union control and establishing a company in the name of Ruedas’ sister in law and brother and contracting with it for books, computer, video and other school supplies. The group subsequently established the Consejo Central de Lucha (CCL). A subsequent investigatory commission exonerated Rueda.

May 1, 2006: teachers submit contract demands

May 15: Union denounces Government’s unwillingness to negotiate, declares statewide strike with planton (encampment) in Zocalo to commence 22 May if deadlock continues.

May 22: teachers establish Plantón (encampment) in Zócalo, the historical center of the city, in response to an inadequate response from the government. Teachers and supporters begin to

arrive from throughout state. In a few days the zócalo and about 56 surrounding blocks are occupied by encampment. Traffic and business impeded.

May 22: Radio Plantón, the encampment radio, begins broadcasting.

May 23 - June 1: strikers increase pressure, blockade airport access on 1 June.

June 2: First mega-march - 80,000 people marched in support of teachers. Ruiz insists they return to classes by June 5.

June 7: Second mega-march

June 8: Teachers’ commission headed by Gen. Secretary Rueda travels to Mexico City for meeting with federal government in attempt to resolve conflict.

June 14: Ruiz sends in State police who evict teachers and destroy radio Plantón. People rallied to their defense and re-occupy Zócalo. Students take over Radio Universidad, immediately start to broadcast in support of strikers.

June 16: Teachers begin negotiations with Secretary of the Interior

June 16: Third mega-march

June 17 - 21 formation of APPO, an alliance which includes some 365 organizations, with a common demand that Ruiz step down.

June 28: fourth mega-march

July 2nd: PRI loses

July 17: Guelaguetza cancelled July 22: Radio Universidad attacked

July 24: Guelaguetza Popular takes place

August 1: Women march and after being refused air time, occupy government owned radio and TV station, channel 9.

August 4: Women occupying station denounce gunshots

August 8: Radio Universidad put out of commission after equipment destroyed by sulfuric acid. August 9: Following an increasing number of violent attacks by Ulises-aligned PRI agents, FM 96.9 broadcasts a call for a ‘red alert’ and for strengthening the road barricades. Three killed and four injured in group coming to join plantón August 10: March of some 20,000 people; José Jiménez Colmenares killed

August 16 -17: APPO Forum entitled “Building Democracy and Governability in Oaxaca,” with some 1500 people to develop plan for transformation of institutions and agenda.

August 18: At least 20 organizations stopped work, allying with unions of the teachers, the road and airport workers, the health workers, local and national unions of Social Security (welfare) workers, malaria prevention workers, and the workers and employees of the Benito Juarez Autonomous University of Oaxaca, the state university where the students in alliance with the movement took over the radio station. August 21: police destroy antenna at Channel 9; APPO calls for more barricades, especially to protect stations; APPO takes over 13 more stations, subsequently relinquishing all but two. Government starts broadcasting through clandestine station, Radio Ciudadana, naming people and encouraging people to shoot them. Taken off the air after said to go after Gabino Cue, the opposition candidate for governor who had run against Ruiz.

August 22: Lorenzo San Pablo Cervantes, an architect is killed at barricades of Radio La Ley August 29-September 20: Members of APPO travel to Mexico City for talks with the Minister of the Interior, Carlos Abascal. Abascal makes several offers to address education and social equity issues in Oaxaca, but APPO insists that Ulises Ruiz resign or be removed from office first. Talks stall on September 20.

Sept 1: The movement holds its 5th mega-march.

September 21: The teachers union and the APPO initiate a march of over 4000 people to Mexico City where they will set up an encampment outside of the Congress. Protesters walk over 300 miles, passing through four states, before arriving in Mexico City in early October.

September 24 - 30: Increasing violence against the movement, marines disembark at Salina Cruz and Huatulco ports. APPO declares ‘red alert’ beginning 28 Sept. Military flights and helicopters over Oaxaca City on September 30. October 9-10: Rueda negotiates with government and recommends approval

October 14: SNTE delegate assembly rejects recommendation

October 14: armed men open fire on a barricade in the streets of Miguel Aleman neighborhood.

October 17: Alejandro García Hernández shot by vigilantes after letting an ambulance through the barricades

October 19: Senate rejects removal of Ruiz; thousands march in Oaxaca.

October 19-20: SNTE consultation on two points denounced by unionists as confusing and mis-leading

October 20: gunshots heard at the house of artist Francisco Toledo during the night.

October 21: Full delegate assembly of SNTE agrees to hold new local assemblies on October 23 and 24

October 26: Local SNTE delegate assembly vote to go back to work with three conditions.

October 28: State troops sent in and in the most violent act in all five months of social conflict, 4 people are killed, including journalist Bradley Roland Will and a teacher, Emilio Alsonso Fabian. October 28: U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza issues a statement regretting death of Will and calling for restoration of law and order. President Fox authorizes dispatch of Federal Preventive Police (PFP) to Oaxaca.

October 28: SNTE Delegate assembly cancelled and call for mobilization.

October 28: Media announces teachers going back to work October 30.

October 28: Government issues final ultimatum and APPO calls for people to leave barricades. October 29: 4500 agents of National Preventive Police begin entrance to Zócalo; after a tense day of advances and retreats they take control of the main square; the APPO retreats to the university.

October 29: major demonstration in Mexico City

October 30: 200,000 march in Oaxaca

October 30: both houses of Mexico's Congress pass resolutions urging Ruiz to resign; including entire PRI caucus in senate which calls on Ruiz to“strongly consider stepping down.”

October 30: UN special rapporteur for indigenous rights issues statement

November 1 and 2: 80,000 teachers with la CNTE in five states strike in solidarity

Nov 1: la otra campaña and others block roads throughout Mexico

Nov 2: federal preventive Police attack Radio Universidad but forced to retreat after 7 hours.

November 5: Sixth mega march

November 9: Gueletao declaration of the Zapoteco, Mixe and Cinanteco Peoples of Oaxaca’s Sierra Madre

November 17: Constitutional convention of APPO.

November 20: At end of three weeks of PFP occupation, with growing tensions, a major confrontation occurrs. Provocations by both PFP, provocateurs and some supposed adherents to the APPO. Tear gas, rocks, slingshots, home-made incendiary rockets, numerous injuries and arrests. Ends with standoff.

November 25: The movement holds its 7th mega-march, intending to non-violently ‘surround’ the PFP in the zócalo. Again major provocations from opposing forces. Heavy fighting as PFP and other armed state and federal agents surround central part of the city, seizing many prisoners, with many injured. Encampment at plaza of Santo Domingo is demolished. Various government buildings are torched by supposedly unidentified arsonists. The city is effectively placed in a state of siege. 149 detained; 141 subsequently transferred to Nayarit, 138 with serious charges; 3 soccer players subsequently released. Amnesty International has reports of 60 others in federal high security prison and Oaxaca state prisons of Etla, Mihuatlan and Tlacolula.

November 28-29: Indigenous Peoples of Oaxaca hold their planned forum, after earlier declaring themselves aligned with the APPO. Meeting in the sanctuary of The Church of the Poor, surrounded and harassed by armed state agents – some masked – with Bishop Emeritus Samuel Ruiz participating, they produce a strong declaration of intent to continue the struggle.

November 29: After relinquishing the final protective barricade for Radio Universidad, the station facilities are formally returned to the University administration, in preference to having the PFP invade the university compound and seize them violently.

November 26 - December 9: Numerous arrests by PFP and other federal and state police units, with hundreds of arrest warrants issued for prominent individuals involved with the APPO, the teachers and civil society. High level of terror – many people go into hiding initially. Some emerge later despite the fear.

December 1: judge frees two men photographed shooting at the protesters, widely believed to have killed Will and three others, citing a lack of evidence

December 3: Communique from APPO.

December 4: In one of his first acts after assuming office, President Felipe Calderón has delegation of APPO leaders who have come to Mexico City for negotiations with his government arrested on charges which include kidnaping, violent robbery, injury, deceitful damage, arson, sedition and attack on public means of communication.

December 10: The movement holds its 8th mega-march. Despite widespread fear, between 10 and 15 thousand march, including some with outstanding arrest warrants. Negotiations with the new ‘hard-line’ federal administration to prevent violence to marchers succeeds. The mood seems to be one of quiet determination.

December 12: Two state police filed complaints with the CEDH (the State Human Rights Commission) alleging, according to La Jornada, that they “were aware of a verbal or written order to kill them, to punish them by mutilation, infamy, scourges, sticks and torment, but also to be judged without being heard or tried by a court,” for passing information to the PFP. A raid by the Federal Preventive Police on the headquarters of Oaxaca’s State police (PME) resulted in the confiscation of 341 weapons used by agents in crimes which were attributed to APPO sympathizers. Eight vehicles which had been reported stolen were also confiscated, and four police agents and one functionary from the Procuraduría General de Justicia (the state attorney general’s office) were detained.

December 16: After three weeks in detention, 43 prisoners including 17 professors, were released from the medium security prison San Jose del Rincón, Nayarit. They arrive in Oaxaca the next day after a trip of some 20 hours. The state government is reported to have paid for their bail. December 18: National Commission for Human Rights issues preliminary report in which it concluded that 20 people had been killed, 370 injured and 349 imprisoned.

December 18: Three APPO leaders, activists kidnaped, beaten by local police and released four hours later.

December 18-19: Leaders of APPO and Local 22 accuse each other of betrayal.

December 19: Charges of sedition, criminal association and property damage added to charges against jailed APPO leader Flavio Sosa Vivavicencio.

December 20: 91 of the 95 Nayarit detainees were moved back to two state prisons in Oaxaca, and subsequently 11 were released. On 21 December 80 remained in custody.

December 22: The EZLN declared Dec. 22 the International Day of Mobilizations for Oaxaca; the date also marks the anniversary of the massacre of 45 indigenous campesinos in Acteal, Chiapas, in 1997. Marches in Oaxaca, Mexico City; solidarity activists and others held demonstrations in 37 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Peru and the US, to demand respects for Oaxacans' human rights and the removal of Gov. December 22: The National Council of the SNTE unanimously approves the creation of Local 59 in Oaxaca. The Consejo Central de Lucha (CCL) claims 5000 members and says it expects to have 10-15,000 more. It is critical of both Rueda and APPO, and claims to be independent of Gordillo.

December 27: House of Deputies approves 4 billion pesos for the re-zonification of teachers throughout the country, including one billion for Oaxaca. Rueda Pacheco announces that Local 22 will contribute 400 million pesos more from dues.

December 31: press conference held in which five former prisoners clarify that they were forced to sign letters which allege that Yésica Sánchez Maya, president of the Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights had incited them to violence and coerced their support of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) in order to obtain their release from prison.