Oaxaca Women Tap for Hope with Their Fingernails
October 16, 2006
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Nancy Davies' new commentary from Oaxaca today reveals that, despite the continuing repression in that rebel state and
the seemingly endless stalemate on a solution with the federal government, the people continue to find new reasons to
have hope. She describes ten key developments from the last few days, including:
"Over the weekend in the capital city of Oaxaca, during a forty-eight hour period, ten different marches took place.
They followed a public funeral in the zocalo's central pavilion for Alejandro García, who died from a gunshot wound to
the head while he was at the barricade in Colonia Alemán, bringing coffee to the night team. A car with four military
men in civilian clothes, recently seen leaving a local cantina, tried to beak the barricade. During the ensuing scuffle
two members of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO in its Spanish initials) were shot, the second victim
in the arm. The accused soldier, Jonathan Ríos Vásquez, declared himself innocent."
"...An indigenous Nahuátl and Mazatec community radio station, Nandia, was attacked and destroyed by government agents.
The women who ran the station belong to an organization of Mazatec indigenous women. After the attack they tried to
leave the small northern town of Mazatlán Villa de Flores to travel to the capital, hoping to make known their outrage
(non-licensed indigenous radio stations are presumably guaranteed in the Oaxaca state constitution), but the only road
out of town was blocked by people identified only as Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) loyalists. The Mazatec
women were planning a hunger strike in the atrium of the Cathedral in Oaxaca. La Jornada of October 7 indicates that the
attack was called for by the state interior secretary and was carried out by the local PRI. Now the women are calling on
international support for the community."
"...In order for the Oaxacan people, authorities, and indigenous organizations to come together for discussions, the
APPO and other various sponsors held the Dialogue for Peace on Friday October 13 in Oaxaca City. The importance of that
meeting is that the former bishop of Chiapas, Samuel Ruiz, once again showed up and spoke for five minutes. This
indicates that Ruiz - who has come three times that I know of - has put his whole moral weight behind the Oaxaca
movement, most likely because of the movement's importance for indigenous peoples."
Read Davies' full commentary, and keep following the events in Mexico's most indigenous and most revolutionary state:
From somewhere in a country called América,
Dan Feder
Managing Editor
The Narco News Bulletin