Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Editor, Outside the Mexican Consulate in Downtown Detroit on October 31, 2006 (Photo By Fred David)
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire Photo File.
Published Nov 1, 2006 10:28 PM
In response to the Mexican federal police intervention in Oaxaca City and the killing of at least three people on Oct. 27—supporters of the popular movement known as the Popular People’s Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO), which has virtually governed life in the city for months—a call went out for protest demonstrations at every Mexican embassy and consulate in the world. The demands included ending the repression and the removal of Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz.
Starting Oct. 30, people demonstrated at scores of official Mexican buildings throughout the world, including dozens in North America. One of the people killed in Oaxaca City was Indymedia video journalist Brad Will, known in the U.S. progressive movement and especially to those involved in independent media and community organizing in the East Village of Manhattan.
Will was hit in the abdomen by gunfire from Mexican police as he was videotaping the attack on the people of Oaxaca City. According to reports, he died on the way to the hospital. Mexican activists have called him an “internationalist” who died heroically while showing his solidarity with the people’s movement.
One of the most militant actions in the U.S. was a protest on 39th Street between Madison and Park avenues in Manhattan. Many of Will’s personal and political friends were among the hundreds protesting, and their grief and anger added to the determination of the demonstrators, who resisted the cops’ attempts to push them onto the sidewalk. About a dozen people were arrested for civil disobedience actions.
In downtown Detroit, community and labor representatives demanded entrance to the Mexican Consulate. The delegation demanded an end to the killing, withdrawal of Mexican troops and the resignation of Oaxaca’s governor. Ignacio Meneses, from Latinos Unidos de Michigan, pointed out that the faces of the gunmen who murdered Brad Will can be seen on a television video. The group demanded an independent investigation of the Will killing and the deaths of 14 other people.
— John Catalinotto and Cheryl LaBash
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Zapatistas: Oaxaca Is Not Alone!
Havana, Nov 1 (Prensa Latina) In a message of support to the peoples of Oaxaca known here Tuesday, the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee of the EZLN Sixth Commission issued a call to the peoples of Mexico for solidarity actions.
Indignant at the murder yesterday of three more members of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) including a minor, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) echoed the call for the ouster of Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz and for removal of the federal troops from that embattled, mostly indigenous, region.
Further, the message called for partial, total or symbolic closure of Mexican highways, streets, and airports in solidarity, and declared the highways and roads in southeast Chiapas would be closed completely today.
The EZLN has convoked all of Mexico to a national general strike on November 20.
Oaxaca has been convulsed since June when a teachersó protest was repressed violently. Since then the APPO has supported the teachers and demanded the resignation of Gov. Ruiz for crimes against humanity as he has allegedly used plainclothes police and state officials to violently oppress the population.
On Friday Brad Will, a NY journalist was shot and killed by these police, according to eyewitnesses. Sunday President Vicente Fox sent in federal troops to bring order, but they have been reportedly beating and arresting the APPO instead of detaining the out-of-control state police.
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