Since the middle of last December, many prisoners have been released in the state of Oaxaca, which has been seen as a great victory in Mexico. What did the authorities find them guilty of? Nothing criminal; only supporting teachers on a strike that was harshly suppressed by the state governor, Ulises Ruiz, and for belonging to the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO). These unjust imprisonments are the result of strong tensions between the federal authorities and the predominantly Amerindian population of Oaxaca, the capital of the southern Mexican state with the same name. 

The controversy began last May, when more than 40,000 teachers in the National Educational Workers Union went on strike to obtain a better work environment: higher salaries and improved material conditions for schools (water, sanitation, electricity, supplies, etc.). In the state of Oaxaca, where in spite its many natural resources (gold, silver, gas, lead, coal), the people are among the poorest in the country, the union has been making demands on the government for more than 25 years. Each time, Ulises Ruiz - fraudulently elected and known for being repressive and corrupt - has always responded with armed force. Confronted with this institutionalized violence, people have supported the demonstrators and the movement quickly became more radical. “We are engaged in the democratic transformation of the country,” attests Flavio Sosa, one of the movement’s spokesmen.

	© APPO / Numerous Mexican organizations support the striking teachers

In this state, where the dominant Amerindian tradition sees the “assembly” as the highest example of social organization, the population created APPO, in response to the violence committed against the teachers, in order to force the authorities to propose better answers to the difficult situation. Uniting more than 350 organizations that represent the majority of civil service workers, peasants, trade unions, natives, and workers, APPO supports the striking teachers and protests against the state governor. Still looking for its own political platform, APPO rejects the current style of government. “It is a question of the right of self-determination,” explains Carlos Brea, spokesman of for the Union of Indigenous Communities, one of APPO’s member organizations in the northern part of the isthmus. 

Soon after, the state descended into chaos, with thousands of people crossing the barricades and occupying public buildings (schools, city halls, universities), Ulises Ruiz used the police and the militia to continue his brutal repression, applying various methods to silence the population: mistreatment, sequestration, torture, unjustified arrests, disappearances, imprisonment, assassinating twenty people, and manipulating the press to criminalize APPO and its members, many of whom were put in isolation or otherwise silenced. 

Today, Ulises Ruiz is still in power, because the new Mexican president, Mister Calderón, elected last July following voter fraud [1], needs Ruiz in order to govern a country where he is confronted with an increasingly strong popular resistance. Everywhere, popular assemblies are being created, which serve to question the way the government treats the people. Even as authorities in Oaxaca have imprisoned APPO’s representatives and used any other means necessary to weaken the popular movement, Mexican citizens still shout, “APPO lives, the fight continues!”

FDH

Notes :

[1]  Read the article “A new social movement in the streets of Mexico City” in the issue n° 7 of
Résonances latino-américaines
Source : RISAL - Réseau d'information et de solidarité avec l'Amérique latine : http://risal.collectifs.net