GENERAL TIMELINE OF EVENTS SINCE THE ESCALATION OF VIOLENCE AND THE ENTRANCE OF FEDERAL FORCES
*_FRIDAY 27_*
Ulises Ruiz’s paramilitary groups shoot at the barricades of Santa Maria and San Bartolo Coyotepec, injuring approximately 20 people, and assassinating 3 people: Esteban López Zurita, the teacher Emilio Alonso Fabián and Brad Will, correspondent from Indymedia New York
The “death caravan” (paramilitaries in unidentified vehicles) continue their random attacks on various barricades
At least 15 people are reported to have been kidnapped at different barricades, being brought the following day to the military base in Miahuatlan.
*_SATURDAY 28_*
Elements of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) arrive at the Oaxaca airport and begin to surround various barricades. Shots are heard in various neighbourhoods.
The Secretary of the Interior (Secretaria de Gobernacion) gives an ultimatum to the APPO to hand over the city and the government offices that very afternoon
Radio Universidad, the radio of the movement, starts coming under attack.
*_SUNDAY 29_*
At 7 a.m., the PFP begin advancing on the city accompanied by armored vehicles to lift the barricades, riot police armed with clubs and shields, backed up by federal units with firearms. Approximately 4,500 elements of the PFP try to enter the city with armored vehicles and high pressure water canons (water which was mixed with chemicals), shooting teargas and firearms, and backed up by helicopters pertaining to the PFP and the Army.
The APPO calls for peaceful resistance. To impede the advance of the armored vehicles, people take the streets creating human shields by laying down in the streets. Among the nonviolent actions, citizens distributed flowers and food to the Federal officers, formed human shields, and even sung the Mexican national hymn 10 meters from federal forces. In further protest of the violent incursion by these repressive forces, many citizens confronted the police, cutting themselves and letting their blood fall to the ground in a symbolic act.
Attacks against Radio Universidad continue with unmarked patrols shooting towards the installations, blockage of their signal, and even at one point cutting the electricity to the station. The transmission went in and out throughout the night, due to various attempts to silence the last voice of the APPO in their disinformation campaign (Radio APPO can be heard on their website at http://www.asambleapopulardeoaxaca.com).
An accident involving PFP forces is reported in Tehuacan, Puebla, resulting in 14 wounded, among them 3 seriously, and 1 killed.
The operative this Sunday, October 29th, leaves a toll of 4 dead, among them a nurse, two teachers (one man and one woman) and a child of 12 years. As of 1 p.m. on Monday, October 30th, Radio Universidad reported a total of 40 disappearances. For its part the APPO (Press Release, 10/30, 11 a.m.) reports more than 60 people detained, many of whom were transported to military bases, illegal under Mexican law.
Police begin raiding houses in search of members of the APPO.
The PFP evicts and occupies the zocalo (main plaza) of the city. APPO members withdraw to the university campus (ciudad universitaria), only to return with more strength and surround the federal forces that occupy the zocalo.
Section 22 (the teacher’s union) informs in a communiqué that they will not return to classes.
The National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE) announces a indefinite national strike in the states of Guerrero, Michoacan, Tlaxcala, Morelos, Zacatecas, Mexico City, and Oaxaca
On Sunday 29/10, the bodies of 6 APPO members who were assassinated are found in the mountains of Oaxaca – at every moment the number of disappeared continues to increase.
In Mexico City, 20 protestors are arrested at the demonstration in front of the Secretary of the Interior (Segob): 8 women and 12 men. Today, Monday 30/10, the twenty were set free with legal conditions.
*_MONDAY 30_*
At one in the afternoon, a large mobilization departs from three different places in the city of Oaxaca (Procuraduría, IEEPO and Santa Rosa) in order to arrive at the city´s zocalo. The marchers surrounded the police that were guarding access to the central plaza with tanks, clubs, tear gas and assault rifles. Mexico City’s Independent Media Center reports that 20,000 people were present in the march.
The detention of at least 23 people by the special operations unit of the PFP this past Sunday has been confirmed. Before being turned into the prosecutor’s office, these people were transported to the 28th military zone.
A caravan of 6 buses carrying students from DF to Oaxaca is detained by members of the PRI (Party of the Institutionalized Revolution – to which URO pertains) in Nochistlan. The students are beaten and at least 3 of the buses (each carrying 45 people) are reported disappeared.
The sixth commision of the EZLN and the Other Campaign block the bridge that links Sonora with the United States. A call is made to close streets, highways and airports all over the country on the 1st of November and to convene an indefinite national strike on the 20th of November in protest against the repression in Oaxaca and calling for the exit of Ulises Ruiz from the position of governor of Oaxaca.
With the exception of the PRI, the remaining sections of the House of Representatives reach an agreement to ask the governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz, to request resignation or step down from the position, with the objective of recuperating the governability of the state. URO refuses to receive the correspondence from the mentioned office.
Fox declares that the PFP entered the city without fire arms although there are photos of agents with AK-47s and R-15s.
A contingent of the APPO installs another encampment in front of the Santo Domingo.
SOLIDARITY ACTIONS
Solidarity actions are reported in:
MEXICO:
Mexico City, Merida, Michoacán, Cuernavaca, Tlaxcala, Pachuca, San
Luis Potosí, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Sonora, Chihuahua, Jalisco
USA:
Austin, Chicago, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Raleigh, New
York City, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle,
Miami, Tucson, Washington DC, Fresno
Montreal, Quebec
Vancouver, Canada
Sao Paolo, Brasil
Londres, Inglaterra
Barcelona, Cataluna
Santiago de Chile, Chile
Madrid, España
Milan, Italia
Munster, Alemania
Berlin, Alemania
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Caracas, Venezuela
In a joint statement, organizations from Honduras, El Salvador,
Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay demand that Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon resolve the problems in the state of Oaxaca, and holds them accountable for all of the deaths. They make a call to all of the people of the world to work in solidarity with Oaxaca. |
BUSQUEDA / SEARCH