Que Viva La Mixteca

Altar garden in honor of Bety Cariño

2010-05-09T23:34:00.007-04:00

Washington, DC--

Friends of Bety Cariño gathered on Mother's Day to create a small garden and altar designed to honor her life and to demand an end to the state sanctioned paramilitary violence which took her life.

If you're in DC please visit the altar. It's on 16th Street NW between Fuller and Harvard.

Who is Bety Cariño?

Alberta “Bety” Cariño Trujillo was assassinated by paramilitaries in rural Oaxaca on April 27, 2010. She was the executive director of CACTUS—Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos—Center for Community Support Working Together based out of Huajuápan de León, Oaxaca, Mexico. Her life and work were devoted to challenging the political, economic, and social structures that threatened the cultural and ecological integrity of her community in la Mixteca region of rural Oaxaca, Mexico. With love, faith and commitment, Bety’s daily routine confronted neoliberal socio-economic models, corporate corruption and political dynasties that have ripped apart la Mixteca with forced migration, industrialized agriculture and political violence. Bety was 37-years old and the mother of an 8-year old son and a 5-year old daughter.

Why honor her with an altar garden?

During her burial a mourner called out: "Que te quede claro, a Alberta no la vas a enterrar. La vamos a sembrar, porque es de las flores más bellas, y su ejemplo dará fruto. Be sure that we are not going to bury Alberta. We are going to plant her because she is of the most beautiful flowers, and her example will bear fruit.”

Why install the altar garden at the Mexican Cultural Institute?

Bety Cariño is a true modern-day revolutionary who fought relentlessly to uphold and support the many cultures of the Mixteca region.

How can you help?

This altar garden honors Bety Cariño and is hopefully a lasting reminder that there are communities all over the world that support the struggle for cultural and political autonomy in Oaxaca. You’re invited to contribute to the altar whether you knew Bety or not. Your contribution is a demonstration of solidarity and a symbol that the spirit of Bety Cariño will not be forgotten. Her struggle lives on.

For more information about how to get involved:

http://cactusoaxaca.wordpress.com/

http://elenemigocomun.net

You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming

--Pablo Neruda

In Honor of the World's Mothers. In Memory of Bety Cariño! Qué Viva la Mixteca!

2010-05-09T15:34:00.001-04:00

Dear Friends and Family:

This mother's day may we remember the great mothers who have sacrifices so much to make this world better for the generations to come.

This Sunday, please pause and remember Bety Cariño, a mother and freedom fighter in the struggle for peace and justice who was

assassinated last week in rural, Mexico. Bety was an admired friend whose murder has produced feelings I did not know existed. Read my

response to this heinous and cowardly murder, and please never stop dreaming of a better tomorrow.

Free the land...emily posner

ps...i know its long, but I have a lot to say

Her face reflects the grief of the great Rio Grande

A once bountiful river now abused and damned

Sucked dry of the life that it once had

Cause she’s distracted, extracted and sad

Like a scared mother in the heart of Baghdad

Today wrinkles crevasse her cheeks deeply

like tearful currents cutting contours steeply

as a canyon’s rebellious raging river

exposing earth’s history layer by layer

the epochs and the era’s

500 years of colonial players

who have fossilized

geopolitical divisions

of internalized conquer and divide impositions

etched into stone by controlling politicians

who are the wardens of poverty’s imprisoning conditions.

Excerpted from Rivers Run by Emily Posner

Just over a week has passed since one of my dearest comrades en lucha sent me a chat message me online from her home inside the Beltway. Without warning the IM appeared, “If you haven’t heard already, I need to tell you something really bad that happened in Oaxaca [Mexico].” As my eyes scanned the sentence, an uncontrollable sickening feeling sunk my heart deep into my digestive tract. A slow fear of the horrendous truth about to be shared pulsed through my body, undeniably warning of the pain to come. It was a moment similar to that deafening period when the timpani controls the orchestra's coming direction.

I was sitting in Cochabamba, Bolivia—half way across the world from the Washington DC apartment where the g-chat had originated. My personal involvement in a growing global water justice movement had brought me to the South America to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the region’s Water War. In 2000, the people of this Andean valley united across economic and cultural differences to resist a water utility privatization scheme imposed on their community by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Bechtel Corporation. Despite the unprecedented level of state violence inflicted upon this city's mostly indigenous population, for months the people of Cochabamba took to the streets and eventually kicked out Bechtel and regained public control over their water utility. A decade later, water justice activists from around the world had come and gathered to celebrate the people’s victory over neoliberal economics and to recognize its significance in all of our localized struggles for the rights to clean and affordable water and the rights of mother earth.

Within this context, many of us in Cochabamba spoke often about the particular model of social justice organizing in Southern Mexico, as well as the great inspiration derived from the literature, history, dignity, and courage of that region's culture. Just a few days earlier, I had discussed with a new friend about my brief experience with the Triqui community in western Oaxaca State and their mutual aid relationship with CACTUS, a grassroots organization whose community work I support and highly respect. In this environment of celebration, it had became all-to-easy to romanticize and forget the on-the-ground reality of those organizing for peace and justice in Chiapas, Oaxaca and other areas in Southern Mexico. The unexpected chat message was a poignant and sharp reminder of the dangers faced by social justice organizers, journalists, the poor and indigenous populations of the area.

My hands quickly typed a response to her, asking for one moment so that I could sign into skype, knowing that a face to face conversation was more appropriate than continuing this conversation on gmail. A half of second later, I wondered how would we have possibly communicated if this had been just five years earlier, and an instantaneous and silent blessing of gratitude for the technology available at my fingertips emerged from an unknown place in my soul. The inexplicable and intuitive grip that still held hostage my internal organs seemed an obvious forewarning to the news I was about to receive. I briefly hesitated to dial. As my thumb and index fingers stumbled over the computer's touch pad, an almost forgotten incident flashed subconsciously before my eyes. Blurring with the present, I confused real time with the past, and returned to a moment when I had to make similar calls through tears after our roommate tragically passed away in a bus accident doing relief work in New Orleans. I prayed to learn that perhaps our shared friend in Oaxaca was sick or hospitalized; but when the skype video finally initiated, my girl’s puffy eyes and streaked cheeks revealed everything that I had feared.

They had killed Bety!

I do not remember the exact words that we shared. Instead my memory is stained with the sound of a raw wail that erupted from my guts, the feeling of angry tears burning my cheeks, and the rotten taste of political violence forever corrupting my faith and respect of our human dignity. Through cyberspace we cried great rivers together over our world's immense loss. Rivers, which I have since learned, have joined thousands of other salty tributaries throughout this hemisphere and far away lands.

They are Rivers

strongly flowing through Arizona's deserts

swiftly crossing Oaxaca's highlands

widely flooding cities from Mexico City to Toronto

fully washing over valleys reaching from the Appalachians to the Andes.

They are rivers that dig beds in our cheeks with meandering tears of never-ending streaks.

Bety, your death has not passed in silence!

Alberta “Bety” Cariño Trujillo was assassinated by paramilitaries in rural Oaxaca on April 27, 2010. She was our mutual friend from Huajuápan de León, Oaxaca, Mexico. Thirty-seven years old and the mother of two young children, Bety was more than an acquaintance; she was a trusted ally in our global movement from below and to the left. She was a true modern-day revolutionary, wholly committed to dismantling the political, economic, and social infrastructure that threatened the cultural and ecological integrity of her community in la Mixteca of rural Oaxaca, Mexico. Bety was the example worth following. With love, faith and commitment, Bety’s daily routine confronted neoliberal socio-economic models, corporate corruption and political dynasties that have ripped apart la Mixteca with forced migration, industrialized agriculture and political violence.

La Mixteca and all of its profound history was just as much a part of Bety as were her hands and feet. Her every breath inhaled the trying environmental and economic conditions forced upon her people; and her every exhale spoke of an ancient resistance steadfastly committed to the dreams of a different tomorrow. Bety's unwavering vision reflected her localized Mixtecan experience, and is perhaps best recounted by subcomandante marcos of the Zapatistas. He writes about la Mixteca and its people in his essay “To the Indigenous National Congress” (March 2001):

They fear it because it allows past history to be seen. They fear it because today it rebels. They fear it because it announces a tomorrow. They fear our language, and that is why they persecute and kill it.

Bety was the executive director of CACTUS—Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos—Center for Community Support Working Together. Cactus worked in the predominantly indigenous Mixtecan community in Oaxaca State. The organization worked as part of the Zapatista’s Other Campaign (la otra campaña) and adhered by many of the horizontal organizing models that have originated from the Lacandón Jungle in Chiapas, home to the Zapatista National Liberation Army. Prior to the 2006 Oaxacan Uprising, Bety and CACTUS supported local indigenous communities, helping them to secure money for small business and agriculture projects.

Bety and CACTUS worked often in rural regions of La Mixteca that have been ripped apart by free-trade policies. Places like La Mixteca are the ground zero of NAFTA, where agricultural subsidy dumping has all but destroyed local agriculture, forcing thousands of Mixtecan farmers to abandon their land, local genetic seed pools, and indigenous knowledge base of their surrounding environment. Unable to sustain their livelihoods, men from this region’s rural towns have traveled North to look for jobs in maquiladora’s along the border or to venture on to the United States. Void of men, La Mixteca has become a region of children, women and the elderly. subcomandante marcos summarizes well the contemporary circumstances of the Mixteca in his fable “How Big is the World?” (Feb 2006). In responding to the story’s title, he writes that a young indigenous Mixtecan woman says:

My papa went to the United States more than twelve years ago. My mama works sewing balls. They pay her ten pesos for each ball, and if one of them isn’t good, they charge forty pesos. They don’t pay then, not until the contractor comes back to the village. My brother is also packing to leave. We women are alone in this, in carrying on with the family, the land, the work. And so, it’s up to us to also carry on with the struggle. The world is as big as the courage this injustice makes me feel, so big it makes my blood boil.

The world of la Mixteca complicates the immigration story spun by US mainstream press. Nothing is easy, concrete or simple when it comes to comprehensively understanding migration throughout North America and Central America, and its subsequent and complex impacts of families, communities, cultures and gender roles on BOTH sides of every border between Canada and Panamá. The women and children in rural Oaxaca are rarely given a voice to broad audiences, or allowed to tell their stories, in US discourses about immigration. They rarely get to ask those on this side of NAFTA's economic borders, “What might it mean to you to loose your father to migration for years? What would it feel like to mortgage your family's land of generations in order to have enough money to travel North? What would you do if you saw all of your sons abandon their community in order to earn enough to support their families?

Bety was committed to bringing these populations and their voices to the forefront of the political process. And it is their perspectives, I believe, which make draconian measures in the US like the militarization of the border, private for-profit detention centers and the recent Arizona legislation that much more reprehensible and racist.

With the acute presence of global economic policies undermining Mixtecan family structures as a backdrop to the Oaxaca narrative, it is important to recognize that this region also has been plagued by political violence intimately connected to voter fraud and political dynasty. The PRI is a Mexican political party that stands for the Institutional Revolutionary Party in English. For nearly 9 decades, the PRI dominated the Mexican Federal Government until the election of Vicente Fox in 2000 finally brought to power a different political party. In Oaxaca, nevertheless, the PRI continues to hold political power by maintaining a system of caciquismo, where they support the authority of local political bosses. In turn, these bosses sell their votes to the PRI in order to ensure the continuance of certain social services like road repair, schools and educational supplies.^¹ This manner of dominance is also often upheld by paramilitary violence, which has more or less become institutionalized in rural Oaxaca. In June 2006 Nancy Davies published on Narco News, a web-based news service committed to Latin American journalism, that “Oaxaca is a contentious state, with conflicts in towns, on public and communal lands. Assassinations each year number between 20 and 30. The state has 570 municipalities, but in 2004, 750 cases of agrarian conflict.”

This type of violence, as reported by Davies, has largely been associated with Oaxaca's rural communities. So when Section 22 of the Oaxacan teachers union went on strike in May 2006, as they do every year, it was surprising that the PRI government opened fire on a group of peaceful urban protesters. A following shock came when the city's population responded to police aggression with a direct and collective ya basta(ENOUGH!) scream, loud enough to be heard by media outlets and journalists from every corner of the world. They came into the streets and evicted the police from the city. Then, their initial ya basta eruption turned into a people’s movement to remove, as the Zapatista's commonly say, the bad government headed by Ulises Ruíz. (First elected in 2004 with great suspicion of electoral fraud, Ulises Ruíz continues to be the governor of Oaxaca.) A coalition of civil society groups—known as the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO)—emerged as the driving organizing force of the diverse groups taking to the streets. For eight months the APPO led a popular rebellion against the Ulises Ruíz corrupt government. Over 27 people were killed or disappeared, an estimated 350 individuals were wounded and 370 arrested. Brad Will, an indymedia journalist from New York, was also killed by a paramilitary in October while reporting from one of the street blockades in the capital.

Outside of Mexico, main stream and alternative media outlets primarily reported about what happened in the capital of Oaxaca. The media, however, hardly touched on how this revolt was carried through in other more rural parts of the state, or the impacts that this four year old revolt has had in places like la Mixteca and in the lives of social justice organizers like Bety Cariño.

APPO had committees in places throughout the state of Oaxaca. In Huajuapan de León, CACTUS was on APPO’s organizing committee. In November 2006, this region sent a large group of supporters to participate in a planned mega-march. Their buses were attacked en route to the capital, and nearly 50 poor people from a community associated with FNIC (another APPO member organization) were arrested and detained in an unknown prison. It is events like this where the power and significance of the Zapatista’s and their organizational model must be recognized.Through CACTUS’s relationship with la Otra Campaña, Bety and others were able to find their comrades across the country in Nayarit, and immediately initiated a network of support in Nayarit for the Oaxacan political prisoners.

It was during this period that an unfounded arrest warrant was placed on Bety Cariño, her husband Omar Esparza and other CACTUS organizers. She also received death threats, and someone on the radio someone threatened to cut out her tongue.

When the arrest warrant was issued, Bety put out an online call to her international community for both support and human rights accompaniment. Our mutual friend received Bety's email. She previously had traveled to la Mixteca to support Bety and CACTUS's work in rural Oaxaca. Knowing that she had to go and stand beside her comrade in this time of political unrest, she phoned me and within two weeks the two of us were on planes heading south. Armed only with documentary equipment and a spirit of solidarity, I ventured to a Mexico I only knew through text books, the poetry of subcomandante Marcos and the stories told by migrants working the blueberry and broccoli fields of my home in Maine. The idea was to accompany Bety and her husband, and bring an international presence to la Mixteca with the hope that our white skin and gringo accents would deter a police arrest or politically motivated violence against our friends.

Bety immediately made a strong and warm impression on me when we first met in Mexico City in Decemeber 2006. After our introduction, I wrote on our blog…

Today, [my friend] and I met her comrade from CACTUS. Bety is a mother, sister, daughter, organizer and freedom fighter. Her energy and spirit are clearly rooted in visions and dreams for a better Mixteca, Oaxaca, Mexico and world. Bety sees through the facades of neoliberalism because of her profound experiences of living with the economic, political and cultural hardships that the ideology has brought to her community. The world would be a more loving place if there were more people like this woman.

Despite traveling all morning with her two children that she hadn’t seen for a month (because she had gone into hiding due to the political violence in Oaxaca), Bety spent hours with [my friend] and I this morning. She brought us up to date on her specific situation and the political repression that her people are enduring.

We remained in Oaxaca for two and a half weeks. Stories of the trip can be found at the blog www.vivamixteca.blogspot.com . My most vivid memories of this trip remain the long evenings of speaking passionately with Bety and her husband about their parallel experience of Oaxaca's political crisis to mine as a relief worker in post-Katrina New Orleans. With both occurrences fresh on our minds, we compared and contrasted the successes and failures of our social movement(s) respective responses to the power vacuums that the political disasters produced in both locations. A commonality we discovered is that the well-armed right will violently defend the status quo through the State and paramilitary/vigilante force when the traditionally disempowered organize themselves horizontally and transparently.

I distinctly remember visiting San Juan Copala just after Christmas on this trip. A group of us traveled many hours on a rundown road to the indigenous community near the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca State. We went to observe the APPO, primarily led by the Indigenous Tiquis Tribe in that area, return the municipal seat to the PRI government. They were the last municipality to concede power back to the PRI after 8 months of rebellion in Oaxaca. At the same time, this community declared itself to be autonomous and under EZLN (Zapatista) control, making San Juan Copala the only Zapatista community outside of Chiapas. And since January 2007, the Triquis associated with the EZLN have maintained their autonomy from the PRI despite being constantly under siege by the ruling political party and associated paramilitary organizations. Hours before sunset, I clearly remember when Bety hastily gathered our group to return to Huajuapán de León. Traveling at night through this region of Oaxaca was not an option.

Bety and CACTUS supported the autonomous movement in San Juan Copala. Starting in 2007, my friend worked with CACTUS to provide technical, financial and labor support to a radio station used by the autonomous community. Violence in this region reached a new low when in April 2008, Felícitas Martínez and Teresa Bautista, two young indigenous reporters, ages 20 and 22, with the Radio Copala community station, were ambushed and assassinated on a rural road outside of San Juan Copala. The women were trained by CACTUS volunteers from California just before their murder.

Two years later, just days after Bety's assassination, during an April 30, 2010 Democracy Now! interview, free-lance journalist Kristin Bricker succinctly outlines the contemporary situation in San Juan Copola:

San Juan Copala declared itself autonomous in 2007 following the 2006 uprising that nearly overthrew the governor. Ever since then, they’ve been the subject of paramilitary violence. The organization that carried out the attack is the UBISORT which is an organization that has been declared a paramilitary organization by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. The state’s ruling party, the PRI, created the organization in 1994 in order to control the Triqui region. Likely out of fear that the Zapatista uprising would inspire indigenous people in Oaxaca as well, which to some extent, was the case. The autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala, for example, are adherent to the Zapatista’s Other Campaign and take much of their inspiration from them. UBISORT paramilitary organization continues to be led by PRI members, that’s the ruling party in Oaxaca, and its leaders were actually both state representatives in the Congress. The UBISORT is very open about its close relationship with the PRI. What happened with the attack on the caravan is that the caravan was taking basic necessities, as you said, to San Juan Copala because the community has been under siege since January. Paramilitaries have blocked access to the community with rocks and armed gunman. And the teachers have been unable to give classes. And the paramilitary has cut off electricity and it cut off the water. The people of San Juan Copala are completely incommunicado. Nobody can enter. Nobody can leave.

Bricker's interview was in response to a paramilitary attack that she survived while accompanying a human rights envoy to San Juan Copala. She and Bety Cariño joined a caravan of 27 others. Journalists, international human rights organizers, teachers and local activists gathered in Huajuapan de León to travel the same road Bety and I took three-and-a-half years earlier. This time they carried food, water, medicine and educators with the hopes of passing through UBISORT's blockade to take this needed humanitarian relief to the people of San Juan Copola.

Instead their caravan was attacked by UBISORT paramilitaries. The backtires were shot out of the SUV Bety was traveling in, which prevented the car from being able to escape. Bety was shot in the head, as was Jyri Jaakkola, a human rights observer from Finland, who sat next to Bety in the car. I could not help but think of the countless times that I sat next to this fearless woman as we traveled together.

In her interview, Bricker continued to describe Bety as

dearly loved and she [Bety] was a very important political leader in the region. She was the director of CACTUS, which is an organization that advocates for indigenous rights, particularly indigenous women’s rights. They do radio projects in the area, in the Mixteca. She was probably one of the two most important people politically who was on that caravan. And so it is very suspicious that it was her who was shot in the head.

Suspicious indeed!

We still had so much to learn from Bety Cariño, who til her dying breath remained

loyal to horizontal organizing,

devoted to ecological stewardship,

dedicated to revitalizing local agriculture and economies,

confrontational to racism, patriarchy, and greed,

faithful to a vision of world where many worlds fit,

and committed to democracy, liberty and justice!

Bety could not have been taller than 5’2’’! Those cowards who ordered her murder could only have been scared of her voice, because it was

A voice committed to speaking truth to power.

A voice that spoke for the voiceless

A voice more dangerous than 1,000 rioters

A voice that others listened too….

A voice that clearly identified those of the bad government

A voice that never wavered

A voice that never stumbled

A voice that others listened too….

A voice of love that undermined from below and to the left

A voice of sovereignty

A voice of autonomy

A voice of dignity

A voice that others listened too….

A voice that lives in my steps

A voice that breathes in her children’s hearts

A voice that grows strengthening sustenance amongst the vitality of the three sisters

A voice that finds water amongst the cacti forests

A voice that sings the moon to sleep

A voice that welcomes the eastern sun with thanks

Un voz de pie, nunca de rodillos!

After celebrating the 2006 winter solstice with Bety, I wrote that while humanity’s struggles for peace and justice are as diverse as the earth around us, we all dream of a better world looking at the same stars. These are the same stars gazed upon by US slaves escaping bondage on the underground railroad, and that provided sanctuary to the civil rights protesters when they marched from Selma to Montgomery. They are the same stars that protected the integrity of the Sandinista revolution and St. Patrick Battalion. They are the same stars that those of Landless Peasant Movements stare at from reclaimed land, and looked upon by autonomous communities from liberated territories. They are the same stars our night eyes study from the forests we defend, the streets we block, and the earth we occupy. They are the same stars that keep our inspiration sacred, our dreams magically real, and our hope unwavering. And perhaps it is this reason that those who dedicate themselves to eradicating oppression and marginalization often unite under the symbol of the star. For it is under one universal sky that our diverse desires for hope, dignity, sovereignty and justice are born.

In my most recent thoughts of Bety I have found myself returning often to the comfort of the soft lyrics of Sueños con Serpientes (Dreams with Snakes) by Cuban folk singer Silvio Rodriguez:

Hay hombres que luchan un día There are people who fight one day
Y son buenos. And they are good.
Hay otros que luchan un año There are others who fight one year
Y son mejores. And they are better.
Hay quienes luchan muchos años There are those who fight many years
Y son muy buenos. And they are very good
Pero hay los que luchan toda la vida: But there are those that fight all their life
Esos son los imprescindibles. Those are the indispensable!

At night when I stare at the same sky in rural Maine that I stared at 3.5 years ago in Oaxaca, I think of you Bety and see that

Her face reflects the spark

Of the fireflies at night

Who through the chaos of the dark

Stay the course to bring the light

And though the struggle of our plight

May be long

And full of blight

It is the truth in her face for the reasons why I fight.

Excerpted from Rivers Run by Emily Posner

During Bety's burial a mourner called out: "Que te quede claro, a Alberta no la vas a enterrar. La vamos a sembrar, porque es de las flores más bellas, y su ejemplo dará fruto. Be sure that we are not going to bury Alberta. We are going to plant her because she is of the most beautiful flowers, and her example will bear fruit.”

Dear Bety….we miss you like the land clear-cut of its forests and the river void of its salmon. My heart is sieved like the mountain once filled with gold or the spring once bountiful with water. They have stolen part of us Bety, and I will never forgive the bad government for that. But you are here in everything we do.

Tierra, Libertad o Muerte!

Land, Liberty or Death

written with great yearning, Emily Posner

Thank You for Your Support of Omar Esparza Zarate

2007-02-26T09:52:00.000-05:00

To all the dignified and honest people who spoke out on behalf of Omar Esparza and justice and dignity in Oaxaca,

[español está al fondo]

Over the last nine months Omar Esparza Zarate, who works with the Center for Communal Support (CACTUS) has become one of the key organizers in the Mixteca region of Mexico with the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca, a grass roots movement formed in response to the violent and repressive policies of Oaxacan governor Ulises Ruiz. As a part of the state backlash against this movement Omar has unjustly become one of many targets of harassment and repression.

On February 9, 2007 at around 11:00am two officials from the Agency of Federal Investigation (AFI) arrived at the CACTUS office, located in Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca. After identifying themselves they asked to speak with Omar. The person who attended the officials told them Omar Esparza couldn't be found in the city for work reasons. The agents indicated they had brought an order to appear for the human rights activist in conjunction with a criminal investigation, signaling that he should appear immediately in the Regional Office of the Attorney General in Huajuapan de Leon. The agents wouldn't explain why Omar was being served an order to appear and indicated that if he wanted to know what he was accused of he would have to appear himself. Upon realizing that Omar Esparza wasn't in the office, the agents photographed the outside of the office and the organization's truck, which they found parked outside. They left without leaving a copy of the order to appear.

On Friday February 23 Omar decided to face the authorities and dispute their claims in the hopes of returning to his work without fear of further persecution and it worked--at least for now. The Oaxacan government knows the whole world is watching. We need to keep current with what is happening in Mexico and make sure authorities know that repressive tactics will not be tolerated.

Thanks to all the support and solidarity Omar is safe for now.

I translated the following statement sent out by the Cuali Nemilistli Human Rights Network explaining the status of Omar's case and the details of what occurred on Friday.

In Solidarity,
Tennessee Watson, tennessee.watson@gmail.com

To all the dignified and honest people who spoke out on behalf of Omar Esparza,

To the civil society of Mexico and the world,

Thank you so much!
February 23, 2007 various organizations and people accompanied Omar Esparza to his appearance before the Attorney General (PGR) in the city of Oaxaca.* There were people present from The National Association of Democratic Lawyers, UCIZONI, the Oaxacan Human Rights Network, Espiral 7, the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations (FIOB), the Cuali Nemilistli Human Rights Network, and obviously the Center for Communal Support (CACTUS). We didn't arrive alone; we arrived accompanied by the word and support of all of the people who responded to the call for Urgent Action, by those who sent messages of solidarity, by those in other countries ready to protest at Mexican consulates and embassies, by those who were already preparing new ways of protesting, by those who gave their word and heart in order to defend Omar, Oaxaca and Dignity.

We arrived at the PGR at 1:00 pm. After waiting a while in the reception area of the local office of the PGR in Oaxaca (which of course is in the middle of no where outside of the city in the country where they try to hide themselves from the world) an agent of the Public Ministry, accompanied by the Regional Commander of the Federal Agency of Investigations (AFI) came to escort Omar Esparza and his lawyer, David Peña to the office where they would have the proceedings.

Afterwards came the long wait outside the PGR, that passed by between preoccupation, jokes and speculation. After approximately three hours, finally, Omar and David came down the stairs and left the building. As they left came the collective questions: What happened? and What did they accuse you of?

Omar and David explained that it dealt with a criminal investigation of the theft of a computer from the offices of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) in Oaxaca that apparently occurred during the last elections when Omar acted as an elections councilor. The PGR wanted Omar to appear only to give his testimony and nothing else.*

In their account of what happened Omar and David told us that present in the office was a representative of the PGR from Oaxaca, the commander of the AFI, the Public Ministry, and two representatives from the Oaxacan office of the Attorney General of Justice (PGJ). The first thing they said to David and Omar is: "it's not for what you all think." Later came the protest from the representative from the PGR about all the "unnecessary noise" that had been made around this and "the calls and letters that they had received from many states and countries asking about Omar's case." The Commander of the AFI was also a little bothered by being exposed to national and international public opinion.

While David and Omar told the details of the meeting, a black truck speed off carrying what was mostly likely agents from the Oaxacan PGJ office. They were fleeing the crowd, the press, and having to respond to the civil society--something that also seems to be a tradition of the Oaxacan authorities.

This story is not over. The PGR still will carry out more proceedings, and according to what they said if they don't find more information the case will be filled. Later we realized that the Oaxacan authorities "were scared by the exposure the case had," and the pressure from civil society, all of you and us, forced the federal and state authorities to contain their repressive spirit and as a consequence use the issue of the stolen computer as an out.

From our heart, thank you for your support, for your words and your action that brought us to win this small battle in favor of Omar, Oaxaca and Dignity; and to be clear with the authorities that we are here, we are alert and, we are organized, that Omar and everyone who struggles for justice, for liberty and for dignity are not alone.

We will continue paying attention to this case and alert to the security of Omar. Having gotten this we need to continue scrutinizing the authorities. We can't trust them. We don't believe in them. We need to question the idea that federal agents used intimidation tactics in order to meet with someone, and then when the person does present themselves the authorities declare it's not that big of a deal and that they only want him to testify for a case that they will probably file for lack of evidence anyway. It doesn't satisfy us that the authorities were scared by the national and international solidarity in response to Omar's situation, and that they were angry about the "unnecessary noise" because they felt scrutinized. Who are they afraid of if their obligation is to respond to the civil society and to be transparent.

Continuing the struggle,

Eduardo Almeida Sánchez

The Cuali Nemilistli Human Rights Network

P.S. for the PGR, AFI and the PGJ: If you only needed Omar to appear to testify, was it really necessary to arrive in a truck full of AFI agents at the CACTUS office with an arrogant attitude against the members of that organization, taking photos of the outside of the office, of the vehicles and saying that Omar had to present himself to the PGR in order "to know what he was accused of."
Proposal: After Atenco, Oaxaca, the aggressions towards human rights activists and journalists, the civil society ahs become a little distrustful, therefore make harmless things seem harmful, because in these times that thing that smells of repression usually is.

*Office of the Attorney General, Procuraduría General de la República, is an institution belonging to the Federal executive branch that is responsible of the investigation and prosecution of federal crimes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attorney_General_(Mexico)

*I had originally heard authorities said they wanted to question Omar about claims he'd made as an elections observer about electoral fraud. The most recent information says it was over a stolen computer. Sorry for any confusion.

RED CUALI NEMILISTLI DE DERECHOS HUMANOS

A todas las personas dignas y honestas que se manifestaron por Omar

A la sociedad civil nacional e internacional

¡Muchas Gracias!

El día viernes 23 de febrero varias organizaciones y personas acompañamos a Omar Esparza a su presentación ante la Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) en la Ciudad de Oaxaca. En ese momento, en dónde estuvieron presentes compañeros de la Asociación Nacional de Abogados Democráticos, UCIZONI, la Red Oaxaqueña de Derechos Humanos, Espiral 7, el FIOB, la Red Cuali Nemilistli de Derechos Humanos y, evidentemente, el Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos (CACTUS), en ese momento, no llegábamos solos, llegamos acompañados de la palabra y del apoyo de todas las personas que respondieron a la Acción Urgente, de las que enviaron mensajes de solidaridad, de las que en el extranjero estaban listas para tomar de manera simbólica las representaciones diplomáticas de México en otros países, de las que ya estaban preparando nuevas formas de manifestarse, de todos los que prestaron su palabra y su corazón para defender a Omar, a Oaxaca y a la Dignidad.

Llegamos a la PGR un tanto tarde, como nos suele pasar a la sociedad civil, a eso de las 13:00 hrs. Después de un rato de esperar en la recepción de la Delegación de la PGR de Oaxaca, que por cierto está en un campo en medio de la nada, en las afueras de la ciudad, como si trataran de esconderse del mundo; tras esa breve espera, llegó una Agente del Ministerio Público (MP), acompañada del Comandante Regional de la Agencia Federal de Investigaciones (AFI) para escoltar a Omar Esparza y a David Peña (su abogado) hacía la oficina donde tendría lugar la diligencia.

Después vino la larga espera a las afueras de la PGR, la que transcurrió entre preocupación, bromas y especulaciones. Tras aproximadamente tres horas, por fin, Omar y David bajaron unas escaleras y salieron del edificio, primera buena noticia, salieron del edificio. A su salida vino la pregunta colectiva de ¿Qué pasó? y la duda de las últimas dos semanas ¿De qué lo acusan?

Omar y David explicaron que se trataba de una averiguación previa iniciada por el robo de una computadora en las oficinas del Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) de Oaxaca, hecho que al parecer ocurrió en las pasadas elecciones en las que Omar fungió como Consejero Electoral. Omar no fue señalado directamente, pero al parecer, los federales trataron de insinuar su responsabilidad. Esto quiere decir que la PGR quería que Omar se presentara solo para dar su testimonio y nada más (ajá, sí, seguro).

En su relato, Omar y David nos contaron a los que esperábamos afuera, que en la diligencia estuvieron presentes el Delegado de la PGR en Oaxaca, el Comandante de la AFI, la MP y dos representantes de la Procuraduría General de Justicia (PGJ) de Oaxaca. Lo primero que les dijeron a David y a Omar fue: "no es por lo que ustedes creen". Y luego vino el reclamo del Delegado de la PGR por todo el "ruido innecesario" que se había hecho en torno a esto y por "las llamadas y cartas que recibieron de muchos estados y países preguntando por el caso de Omar". El Comandante de la AFI estaba también un tanto molesto por haber sido expuesto ante la opinión pública nacional e internacional.

Mientras David y Omar contaban los pormenores de la reunión, una camioneta negra salió a velocidad de fuga con lo que no podían ser más que agentes de la PGJ de Oaxaca, salieron huyendo de la sociedad civil, de la prensa, de tener que responder ante la sociedad, algo que parece ser ya una tradición entre las autoridades Oaxaqueñas.

Esta historia no termina, todavía la PGR llevará a cabo más diligencias, y según dijeron, si no encuentran más elementos, el caso se archivaría. Más tarde nos enteramos que las autoridades de Oaxaca "estaban espantadas por la exposición que tenía el caso", y que al parecer sí había intenciones de ir sobre Omar, pero que la presión de la sociedad civil, de todos ustedes, de este nosotros, había obligado a las autoridades federales y estatales a contener sus ánimos represivos y como consecuencia usar este asunto de la computadora como una salida.

De corazón, muchas gracias por su apoyo, por su palabra y su acción que llevaron a ganar esta pequeña batalla a favor de Omar, de Oaxaca y de la Dignidad y a dejarles claro a las autoridades que estamos aquí, que estamos alertas, que estamos organizados, que Omar y todos los que luchan por la justicia, por la libertad y por la dignidad no están solos.

Seguiremos atentos del caso y alertas por la seguridad de Omar, pues a estas alturas no no es posible confiar en las autoridades, no creemos en ellas, no nos convence la idea de que se movilicen agentes federales en una diligencia intimidatoria para citar a alguien para que se presente a conocer de qué se le acusa, y que al momento de presentarse le digan que no era para tanto, que únicamente se quería un testimonio para un caso que probablemente se archivará por falta de elementos, porque no tienen elementos, no nos convence que las autoridades se asusten por la solidaridad nacional e internacional ante el caso de Omar, que se enojen por el ruido innecesario, que reclamen por sentirse vigilados, ¿a qué le temen? Si tienen la obligación de responder a la sociedad civil y de ser transparentes.

… continuará y continúa.

Eduardo Almeida Sánchez

Red Cuali Nemilistli de Derechos Humanos

P.D. para la P.G.R., la A.F.I. y la P.G.J.: ¿Si sólo querían que Omar se presentara a testificar, era realmente necesario que llegara una camioneta civil llena de agentes de la AFI a las oficinas de CACTUS en actitud prepotente contra los integrantes de esa organización, tomando fotos de la fachada de la oficina, de los vehículos y diciendo que Omar tenía que presentarse ante la PGR para "saber de qué se le acusaba"? Propuesta: después Atenco, Oaxaca, de las agresiones contra defensores de derechos humanos y periodistas, en la sociedad civil nos hemos vuelto un tanto desconfiados, así que no hagan cosas inofensivas que parezcan malas, porque en estos tiempos lo que huele a represión casi siempre lo es.

Support CACTUS organizer Omar Esparza Zarate

2007-02-21T02:55:00.000-05:00

Dear friends/Queridos amig@s,

My first instinct with messages like this, pleading for you to help an endangered activist in some far off place, is to skim them over and never follow-up. I BEG you to read on and to take action. The following is a comunique I translated from a human rights network in Mexico asking you to send messages to Mexican authorites demanding the human rights of activist Omar Esparza Zarate are respected. Omar is a dear dear friend--more like a brother. I've been working with him and CACTUS for the last 3 years. Over the last nine months Omar has become one of the key organizers in the Mixteca region of Mexico with the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca, a grass roots movement formed in response to the violent and repressive policies of Oaxacan governor Ulises Ruiz. As a part of the state backlash against this movemnt Omar has unjustly become one of many targets of harrassment and repression. Right now he is being hunted by the equivalent of the Mexican FBI for reasons they have not disclosed. He's been underground for the last couple months and this coming Friday February 23 Omar has decided to face the authorities and dispute their claims in the hopes that he can return to his work without fear of further persecution. In order to successfully refute their charges Omar needs our help. We need to let Mexican and Oaxacan authorities know that Omar has the support of concerned people across Mexico, the United States and the world. Please read on, take action and then forward this comunique!

In solidarity,
Tennessee Watson

URGENT ACTION: Fear for the safety of Mixtecan human rights activist: OMAR ESPARZA ZARATE of CACTUS

Cuali Nemilistli Human Rights Network

Urgent Action, February 2007

OMAR ESPARZA ZARATE/CENTER FOR COMMUNAL SUPPORT (CACTUS), HUAJUAPAN DE LEON, OAXACA, MEXICO

To the Mexican Federal Government and Oaxacan State Government,
To the Governments of the World,
To the general public,
To the press,

The Cuali Nemilistli Human Rights Network asks for you urgent intervention against the harassment, and risk to the safety and physical integrity of human rights activist OMAR ESPARZA ZARATE from the Center for Community Support (CACTUS) based in Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca, Mexico. CACTUS is a member organization of the Cuali Nemilistli Human Rights Network.

FACTS:
February 9, 2007 at around 11:00am two officials from the Agency of Federal Investigation (AFI) arrived at the CACTUS office, located in Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca. After identifying themselves they asked to speak with Omar Esparza Zarate, member of CACTUS. The person who attended the officials told them Omar Esparza couldn't be found in the city for work reasons. The agents indicated they had brought a warrant for the human rights activist, signaling that he should appear soon in the Regional Office of the National Attorney General in Huajuapan de Leon, to find out what he's accused of in relation to things that happened at the end of 2006.

Upon realizing that Omar Esparza wasn't in the office, the agents photographed the outside of the office and the organization's truck, which they found parked outside. They left without leaving a copy of the warrant.

BACKGROUND:

Omar Esparza Zarate is 30-years old. He is originally from Tehuacan, Puebla, but he has lived in Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca for the last six years. He has a background in social work.

Over the last several years, Omar Esparza Zarate has done diverse work on the subject of the defense of human rights, community development and research in the Mixteca region (which includes parts of the states of Oaxaca, Puebla and Guerrero) as a member of the Center for Communal Support (CACTUS). Founded in 1990, CACTUS has for the last six years been a part of the Cuali Nemilistli Human Rights Network.

At the end of 2006, the years of work that CACTUS and particularly Omar Esparza Zarate have done in the Mixteca brought about solidarity from the communities of the Mixteca and participation in the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca.

We want to emphasize that this is not the first troublesome act Omar Esparza or his organization have suffered from.

January 24, 2006 Omar Esparza Zarate was detained and jailed arbitrarily by municipal police in Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca. Upon leaving the CACTUS office, along with his partner, he was intercepted by patrol car number 021 y surrounded by 5 other police units demanding that he descend from his trunk. Omar Esparza demanded that the agents explain their motive for his detention or that they show a warrant, which bothered the officers. Two police officers got out of their patrol car and explained that this was a routine operation since they had been information that there was a pick-up truck transporting arms.

20 agents proceeded to violently open the truck. In spite of the fact that one of the agents recognized Omar has a member of a human rights organization, eight officers got him out of the truck and forced him to the back of the patrol car, handcuffing him, insulting him, and forcing him to remain on his knees until the commander of the municipal police arrived.

After an hour of detention, the municipal trustee of Huajuapan, José Miguel Camacho Morales, gave him a misdemeanor and fined him 200 pesos (about 20 US dollars) in order to be released.

After this happened Omar Esparza presented a complaint to the State Human Rights Commission for which he still hasn't received any kind of a reply.

Months after, in the early morning of June 12, 2006 unknown subjects entered the offices CACTUS shared with PANEE-the National Patronage of Literacy and Educational Extension, where they opened the file cabinets and searched through accounting and administrative files for both organizations with information about groups and people they worked with, as well as personal items. They also took two cameras and 5,000 pesos (roughly 500 US dollars).

At the end of 2006, Alberta Cariño, Omar Esparza Zarate's partner and member of CACTUS, was the subject of various anonymous phone threats, in which they said that if she continued to talk with the public, that they were going to cut her tongue out.

FEAR FOR THE SAFETY:

It goes without saying that we are preoccupied with the tense political climate and lack of stable government that the state of Oaxaca is currently living with, as well as the systematic violation of human rights the State Government of Oaxaca commits daily.

Omar Esparza Zarate, as a human rights activist has raised up his voice in defense of the most vulnerable and unprotected groups, fighting to better living conditions y exposing the authors of various human rights violations.

The work of human rights activists is fundamental and unfortunately extremely dangerous in our country, and deserves special protection; therefore we should take all actions possible to protect this work. Attacking the individual and collective rights and guarantees of human rights activists, is an attack against those that they protect and those with whom they work to obtain a better standard of living in the region.

We are afraid for the security, physical integrity and freedom of Omar Esparza Zarate in the face of these acts of harassment and threats that that he has been the subject of, along with his family.

We are also just as afraid that this harassment against Omar Esparza Zarate represents only the beginning of a wave of harassment and repression against the members of the Center for Communal Support (CACTUS), and against the inhabitants of the Mixteca region and other regions of the State of Oaxaca that have participated in the movement of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca.

Consequently we make the Mexican Federal Government and the State Government of Oaxaca responsible for whatever acts of violence or intimidation that Omar Esparza Zarate, his family, or members of CACTUS maybe subjected to.

The Cuali Nemilistli Human Rights Network points out that the events referred to above contradict the right to personal liberty, legal safeguards, equal treatment before the law; liberty of thought, speech, and the right to free assembly, protected by different articles of the Constitution of the United States of Mexico and the State of Puebla, the Universal Human Rights Declaration, the American Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr.htm

Therefore the Cuali Nemilistli Human Rights Network asks urgently:

1.- That the necessary measures are taken to stop the harassments and threats against human rights activist Omar Esparza Zarate, his family and the rest of his co-workers from the Center for Communal Support (CACTUS).

2.- That the liberty, safety and physical integrity of the members of CACTUS, especially Omar Esparza Zarate and his family is guaranteed.

3.-That concrete and urgent measures are taken to implement the Declaration of Defenders from the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

4.- That there is the application of what is stipulated by the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly of the United nations on December 9, 1998, in particular that which refers to the protection of the all people "to conduct human rights work individually and in association with others, and to seek the protection and realization of human rights at the national and international levels," therefore the State should "take all necessary measures to ensure the protection of everyone against any violence, threats, retaliation, adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the Declaration," (http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/defenders/declaration.htm) and in the resolution about the Defenders of Human Rights in the Americas AG/RES. 1671 (XXIX-O/99), adopted by the Organization of American States on June 7, 1999.

Sincerely,

The Cuali Nemilistli Human Rights Network
juridico@cualinemilistli.org

Please send your appeals to the following directions and carbon copy juridico@cualinemilistli.org.

Louise Arbour, Alta Comisionada de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos, (High Commissioner for United Nations Human Rights Commission)
tb-petitions@ohchr.org

Sr. Amerijo Inalcaterra, Representante en México de la Oficina del Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos, (Mexican Representative to the United Nations Office of the Human Rights High Commission)
oacnudh@hchr.org.mx

Sr. Santiago Cantón, Secretario Ejecutivo de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, (Executive Secretary of the Interamerican Human Rights Commission)
cidhoea@oas.org

Lic. Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa, Presidente de la República, (Mexican President)
felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx

Lic. Francisco Javier Ramírez Acuña, Secretario de Gobernación, (Secretary of the Interior)
frjramirez@segob.gob.mx

Lic. Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza, Procurador General de la República, (Attorney General)
ofproc@pgr.gob.mx.

Lic. José Luis Soberanes Fernández, Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos. (President of the National Human Rights Commission)

Actuaria Eugenia del Carmen Diez Hidalgo, Unidad para la promoción y defensa de los Derechos Humanos de la secretaria de Gobernación.

Lic. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, Gobernador del Estado de Oaxaca,
gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx (Governor of Oaxaca)

Lic. Manuel García Corpus, Secretario General de Gobierno del Estado de Oaxaca, (General Secretary of the Government of Oaxaca)
sriagral@oaxaca.gob.mx

Lic. Rosa Lizbeth Caña Cadeza, Procuradora General de Justicia del Estado de Oaxaca, (Attorney General for Oaxaca)
buzonciudadano@pgjoaxaca.net

Lic. Jaime Mario Pérez Jiménez, Presidente de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Estado de Oaxaca, (President of the Oaxacan Human Rights Commission)
correo@cedhoax.org, quejas@cedhoax.org

M.A. Manuel Moreno Rivas, Director de la Policía Ministerial del Estado de Oaxaca, (Director of the ministerial police)
director@polministerialoax.com

C. Comandante Regional de la Mixteca de la Policía Ministerial del Estado de Oaxaca, (Mixtecan Regional Commander of the Ministerial Police)
reg_mixteca@polministerialoax.com

Lic. Roberto Eliud García Salinas, Visitador adjunto de la Oficina Regional de la Mixteca de la Comisión Estatal de Derechos Humanos del Estado de Oaxaca. (Micxteca Office of Oaxacan State Human Rights Commission)

Red Cuali Nemilistli de Derechos Humanos

RED CUALI NEMILISTLI DE DERECHOS HUMANOS

ACCIÓN URGENTE 002/2007

OMAR ESPARZA ZÁRATE/CENTRO DE APOYO COMUNITARIO TRABAJANDO UNIDOS A.C. (CACTUS), HUAJUAPAN DE LEÓN, OAX.

Puebla, Puebla a 20 de Febrero de 2007.

A los Gobiernos Federal y del Estado de Oaxaca.

A los Gobiernos del Mundo.

A la opinión pública.

A los medios de comunicación.

La Red Cuali Nemilistli de Derechos Humanos solicita su intervención urgente ante el hostigamiento y el riesgo para la seguridad e integridad física del defensor de los Derechos Humanos OMAR ESPARZA ZÁRATE , del Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos (CACTUS, A.C.) de Huajuapan de León, Oaxaca, organización integrante de la Red Cuali Nemilistli de Derechos Humanos.

HECHOS:

El día viernes 9 de febrero de 2007, cerca de las 11:00 horas se presentaron en las oficinas del Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos (CACTUS A.C.), ubicadas en Huajuapan de León, Oaxaca, dos oficiales de la Agencia Federal de Investigación (AFI), quienes tras identificarse solicitaron hablar con Omar Esparza Zárate, miembro de CACTUS, el compañero que los atendió les dijo que Omar Esparza no se encontraba en la ciudad por motivos de trabajo, los agentes señalaron que llevaban una Orden de Presentación para el defensor de derechos humanos, señalando que debía comparecer "pronto" en la Oficina Regional de la Procuraduría General de la República en Huajuapan de León para conocer de qué se le acusa, en relación con hechos sucedidos a finales de 2006.

Al conocer que Omar Esparza no se encontraba en las oficina de la organización fotografiaron la fachada de esta y la camioneta que se encontraba estacionada afuera y se retiraron sin dejar copia de la orden de presentación.

ANTECEDENTES:

Omar Esparza Zárate tiene 30 años de edad, es originario de Tehuacán, Puebla, pero reside en Huajuapan de León, Oaxaca desde hace 6 años, cuenta con estudios en Trabajo Social.

Desde hace varios años, Omar Esparza Zárate realiza diversos trabajos en materia de defensa de derechos humanos, desarrollo comunitario e investigación en la Región Mixteca (que abarca zonas de los Estados de Oaxaca, Puebla y Guerrero) como integrante del Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos (CACTUS A.C.), fundada en 1990 y que desde hace 6 años forma parte de la Red Cuali Nemilistli de Derechos Humanos (RCN).

A finales de 2006, el trabajo que por años ha realizado CACTUS y en particular Omar Esparza Zárate en la región mixteca, lo llevó a solidarizarse con las comunidades de la mixteca y a participar en el movimiento de la Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca.

Deseamos hacer énfasis en que este no es el primer acto de molestia que sufre Omar Esparza y su organización.

El 24 de enero de 2006 Omar Esparza Zárate fue detenido y encarcelado arbitrariamente por policías municipales de Huajuapan de León, Oaxaca. Al salir de las oficinas de CACTUS, en compañía de su esposa, fue interceptado por la patrulla número 021 y rodeado por otras cinco unidades policíacas para exigirle que descendiera de su camioneta. Omar Esparza exigió a los agentes que le explicaran el motivo de la detención o que le mostraran una orden por escrito donde se ordenara esta, lo que molestó a los agentes. Dos de los policías bajaron de su patrulla y le explicaron que era una operación de rutina pues tenían información de que en una camioneta llevaban armas.

20 agentes procedieron a abrir violentamente la camioneta, a pesar de que uno de los agentes lo identificó como integrante de una organización de derechos humanos y entre 8 agentes lo bajaron de su camioneta y lo introdujeron por la fuerza a la batea de la patrulla, esposándolo, insultándolo y obligándolo a permanecer de rodillas hasta que se presentó el comandante de la policía municipal.

Una hora después de la detención, el síndico municipal de Huajuapan, José Miguel Camacho Morales, quien calificó la falta, y le fijó una multa de 200 pesos para obtener su libertad.

Tras estos hechos Omar Esparza presentó una queja ante la Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Estado, queja por la cual aún no se obtiene ninguna respuesta.

Meses después, en la madrugada del 12 de junio de 2006 sujetos aún desconocidos se introdujeron en las oficinas que en aquel entonces compartían CACTUS con el Patronato Nacional de Alfabetización y Extensión Educativa (PANAEE), donde abrieron a la fuerza archiveros y registraron expedientes contables y administrativos de ambas organizaciones, así como información de grupos y personas con las que trabajaban y objetos personales, además de haberse llevado dos cámaras fotográficas y 5 mil pesos .

A finales de 2006, Alberta Cariño, esposa de Omar Esparza Zárate e integrante de CACTUS fue objeto de diversas amenazas telefónicas anónimas, en las cuales se le decía que si seguía hablando de más al pueblo, le iban a cortar la lengua.

TEMOR POR LA SEGURIDAD:

Sobra expresar nuestra preocupación por el tenso clima político y de ingobernabilidad que se vive actualmente en el Estado de Oaxaca, así como la sistemática violación a los derechos humanos que comete a diario el Gobierno de dicho Estado.

Omar Esparza Zárate, como defensor de derechos humanos, ha alzado la voz en defensa de los grupos mas vulnerables y desprotegidos, luchando por mejorar sus condiciones de vida y desenmascarando a los autores de diversas violaciones a los derechos humanos.

El trabajo de los defensores de derechos humanos es fundamental y por desgracia sumamente riesgoso en nuestro país, y merece de una protección especial, por lo tanto, deben tomarse todas las acciones posibles para protegerlo, pues al atentar contra sus garantías individuales y colectivas, se atenta directamente contra las de aquellos a los que protege y con quienes trabaja para obtener un mejor nivel de vida en su región.

Tememos por la seguridad, integridad física y la libertad de Omar Esparza Zárate ante estos actos de hostigamiento y amenazas de que ha sido objeto junto con su familia.

Tememos, de igual manera, que el hostigamiento contra Omar Zárate Esparza represente únicamente el comienzo de una ola de hostigamiento y represión en contra de los miembros del Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos y contra los habitantes de la región mixteca y otras regiones del Estado de Oaxaca que han participado en el movimiento de la Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca.

Por lo anterior, hacemos responsables a los Gobiernos Federal y del Estado de Oaxaca de cualquier acto intimidatorio o violento de que sea objeto Omar Esparza Zárate, su familia o los miembros del Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos A.C.

La Red Cuali Nemilistli de Derechos Humanos señala que los hechos referidos contradicen los derechos a la libertad personal, a la seguridad jurídica, igualdad ante la ley, libertad de pensamiento y expresión y el derecho a la libre ocupación, protegidos por diversos artículos de la Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos y del Estado de Puebla, la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos; la Convención Americana de Derechos Humanos y el Pacto Internacional de Derechos Civiles y Políticos.

Por lo anterior la Red Cuali Nemilistli de Derechos Humanos solicita urgentemente:

1.- Que se tomen las medidas necesarias para que cese el hostigamiento y las amenazas en contra del defensor de derechos humanos Omar Esparza Zárate, su familia y el resto de los miembros del Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos (CACTUS).

2.- Se garantice la libertad, la seguridad y la integridad física de los integrantes de CACTUS, en especial de Omar Esparza Zárate y su familia.

3.- Se tomen medidas concretas y urgentes para implementar la Declaración de los Defensores emitida la Declaración sobre el Derecho y el Deber de los Individuos, los Grupos y las Instituciones de Promover y Proteger los Derechos Humanos y las Libertades Fundamentales Universalmente Reconocidas.

4.- Asegurar la aplicación de lo dispuesto en la Declaración sobre defensores de los de Derechos Humanos, adoptada por la por la Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas el 9 de Diciembre de 1998, en particular en lo referente a la protección del derecho de toda persona"...individual o colectivamente, a promover la protección y realización de los derechos humanos y las libertades fundamentales, en los planos nacional e internacional y a esforzarse por ellos" ( Art.1), así como en lo relativo al deber del Estado de garantizar ...la protección por las autoridades competentes de toda persona, individual o colectivamente, frente a toda violencia, amenaza, represalia, discriminación, negativa de hecho o de derecho, presión o cualquier otra acción arbitraria resultante del ejercicio legitimo de los derechos mencionados en la presente Declaración (8art. 12.2) y por la resolución sobre Defensores de Derechos Humanos en las Américas AG/RES. 1671 (XXIX-O/99), adoptada por la Organización de los Estados Americanos el 7 de junio de 1999.

Atentamente,

Red Cuali Nemilistli de Derechos Humanos.
juridico@cualinemilistli.org

Favor de enviar sus llamamientos a las siguientes direcciones con copia para
juridico@cualinemilistli.org.

Louise Arbour, Alta Comisionada de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos,
tb-petitions@ohchr.org

Sr. Amerijo Inalcaterra, Representante en México de la Oficina del Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos,
oacnudh@hchr.org.mx

Sr. Santiago Cantón, Secretario Ejecutivo de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos,
cidhoea@oas.org

Lic. Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa, Presidente de la República,
felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx

Lic. Francisco Javier Ramírez Acuña, Secretario de Gobernación,
frjramirez@segob.gob.mx

Lic. Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza, Procurador General de la República,
ofproc@pgr.gob.mx.

Lic. José Luis Soberanes Fernández, Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos.

Actuaria Eugenia del Carmen Diez Hidalgo, Unidad para la promoción y defensa de los Derechos Humanos de la secretaria de Gobernación.

Lic. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, Gobernador del Estado de Oaxaca,
gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx

Lic. Manuel García Corpus, Secretario General de Gobierno del Estado de Oaxaca,
sriagral@oaxaca.gob.mx

Lic. Rosa Lizbeth Caña Cadeza, Procuradora General de Justicia del Estado de Oaxaca,
buzonciudadano@pgjoaxaca.net

Lic. Jaime Mario Pérez Jiménez, Presidente de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Estado de Oaxaca,
correo@cedhoax.org, quejas@cedhoax.org

M.A. Manuel Moreno Rivas, Director de la Policía Ministerial del Estado de Oaxaca,
director@polministerialoax.com

C. Comandante Regional de la Mixteca de la Policía Ministerial del Estado de Oaxaca,
reg_mixteca@polministerialoax.com

Lic. Roberto Eliud García Salinas, Visitador adjunto de la Oficina Regional de la Mixteca de la Comisión Estatal de Derechos Humanos del Estado de Oaxaca.

La Posada in San Juan Diego FNIC

2006-12-29T23:49:00.000-05:00

RETURN OF THE PRISONERS:
The lingering month’s anxiety slowly dissipated in San Juan Diego FNIC at dusk on Christmas Eve. As reunited families together returned to their homes for the first time since November 25, one could feel the tension that had burdened this humble community dissolve in the brisk air of the desert night. It was as if everyone—fathers, mothers, children, neighbors, friends and supporters—exhaled together, sighing in thankful relief to finish this painful chapter of an uncertain story clearly not yet over in Southern Mexico.

I unfortunately missed the precious moment when San Juan Diego’s political prisoners stepped off the bus and into the open air of their Huajuapan neighborhood. Instead myself and other CACTUS organizers had been rushing to finish preparing a fruit salad to feed 200 people for the evening’s Christmas celebration. However, when I finally did arrive, Betty Cariño of CACTUS whispered in my ear that the moment was both historical and emotional. The now liberated Huajuapeños, who just hours earlier were cursed with the horrors of confinement, were passionately greeted with joyful shouts and tears of yearning. Their heads were laden with welcoming confetti. And a never-ending round of hugs metaphorically reunited the San Juan Diego residents with their home, linking neighbors to place.

Following the reception, numerous social movement leaders offered words of hospitality, support and solidarity to the gathered community of San Juan Diego. Knowing that the former political prisoners surely wanted to be finally resting in comforts of their homes, the leaders comments were brief but nevertheless inspiring. Another round of informal greeting and embracing followed before the families eventually retreated to their houses. In the face of political repression, institutionalized fear and economic poverty, this gathering profoundly demonstrated the depth and strength of neighborly bonds and mutual aid that is present in San Juan Diego. And as the crowd began to disperse, the all-around mood was unmistakably one of appreciation for freedom, family and home.

PREPARING POZOLE:
Our friends from CACTUS then took me to the Doña Emma’s home across the way from Bernadita’s to help prepare the pozole for the evening’s Posada. San Juan Diego is a squatter community; a neighborhood that physically reflects captialism’s marginalized and forgotten populations. Houses are made from tin sheet metal. Sheets separate rooms, and floors are the earth of pachamama. Water must be carried from a nearby well, and food is cooked on open fires in the yards.

At Doña Emma’s, four women from the neighborhood gathered to cook the pozole: a chicken and corn like soup that is dressed with molle sauce, radishes, lettuce and lime. Together they collectively worked: cutting vegetables, boiling water, stirring corn, and keeping the fire alive. The activity was not that much unlike pre-planning that my comp’has from the north do before community events. The major difference, however, was the intruding and persistent affects of Ulises Ruíz’s political regime on what should flat-out have been a PARTY. While cutting radishes, I asked a fellow cook how this year was different from years past. She thoughtfully responded that they had this problem, where so many of their neighbors were imprisoned.

Shortly later, two of Bernadita’s daughters came over to see what I was doing. I asked them where was their mother. “She’s at home crying,” they answered. My heart stopped momentarily…..mostly from the understanding that despite their freedom, coping with the trauma and affects of the Oaxacan political crisis was far from over for the residents of San Juan Diego FNIC.

LA POSADA:
The Christmas Eve Posada had been planned for many days. In the face of repression and separation, CACTUS, Tennessee and I wanted San Juan Diego’s children to have the opportunity to celebrate the coming holidays. However, the freedom of their parents and siblings brought sweetness to the evening incomparable to the fruit of any tree.

The community gathered at around ten o’clock at Doña Emma’s. Prayers began shortly after, and a procession fell behind the youth that bore statues of the young Jesus to be returned to his manger. We moved in unison through the neighborhood, candlelight leading us to the small church where the service ended. I only wish that I knew more about the biblical significance of Jesus Christ’s birth (though I imagine that it is quite significant), because the evening was clearly charged with a spirit of metaphor and personification that my ignorance does not understand.

At this point, the cooks served a delicious pozole and fruit salad. The entire community was together, warmed by the presence of their missed neighbors.

I want to thank everyone who have supported this trip and helped make this evening happen. I also want to thank the many people from around the world sent letters of solidarity to the families of San Juan Diego. Your words are DEEPLY appreciated.

Tennessee and I will soon post the stories of these political prisoners. STAY TUNED.

A Letter of Solidarity

2006-12-29T23:43:00.000-05:00

From Comrades Maia Campoamor and Jacob Mentlik
Montville, Maine

Shut your eyes and breathe deep

Hear your breath, feel your strength
you are alive; you are strong; you are courageous
Imagine arms stretching out towards you
they are stretching from the far northeastern corner of the united states
From a piece of land en el campo
from farmers who live close to the earth
from comrades
from young people inspired by your strength
from people who are clueless as to what your struggle truly feels like
from people who have been fighting in the global north for social and ecological justice since the day we figured out we had no option but to do so.
from people who are filled with rage at the oppression you are experiencing

Our arms are reaching out to you, people struggling in the desert of Mexico, in the beautiful region of Oaxaca, in the community of San Juan Diego; they are reaching out in a show of solidarity, of support, of love, of inspiration to you and your families; Our arms will always remain open to people all over the world, from our neighbors in Montville, Maine, to
the Native survivors of genocide in the U.S, to the endlessly oppressed indigenous people of the South, to families in Iraq who wake up everyday to the sound of bombs and tanks, to the people who are experiencing starvation and genocide in Africa.

But today we are reaching out specifically to you; to the people of San Juan Diego who are without a family member, friend or neighbor during these holidays. To you who are are in the heart of an admirable yet extremely difficult struggle for justice and a dignified Oaxaca. We fully understand and appreciate the importance of family and community and feel extremely
privileged that on a day like today we can be and are with our immediate family. So as we sit down to eat dinner in our home, unoccupied by overt fear and struggle, we will have you in our minds, in our heart and our thoughts.

However, we will not be satisfied, we will not be happy, we can not fully celebrate with our friends and families until all your people are released from prison, until all your people are found and reunited with their families, until Ulises Ruiz steps down and never comes back, until the federal and state forces leave your land, until the political repression ends, until there is punishment for all those who have caused despicable harm to those innocent people, until all living things around the globe are liberated and free!

With our fists in the air, we say to you:

We will not let their political boundaries and their state or national borders separate us
We will not let their efforts to keep us apart tear at our seams of solidarity
We will not let them scare us, rip apart our communities or take our people away
We will stand by your side in whatever way we are able
We will keep your spirits and the spirits of those imprisoned or missing alive and thriving in our region and communities
We have for you all the deepest of respect, the highest levels of admiration

Shut your eyes and take deep breaths
finding a rhythm as you breathe
a rhythm of hope, courage and belief
Know that the world is aware of your struggles
Know that people out there are defiant, rebelling, struggling, fighting for you, for us
After all, we are one.

Home safe for now: Bernadita Ortiz Bautista

2006-12-29T10:43:00.000-05:00

Bernadita Ortiz Bautista, Pablo Ortiz's wife, is home safe for now in San Juan Diego FNIC after her release on December 24. Every thirty days she is required to travel two hours to the city of Oaxaca to check in with authorities and sign paperwork. Bernadita is just beginning the long legal process of proving her innocence against accusations she was a part of violent property destruction in Oaxaca City on November 25, 2006. According to Bernadita and other witnesses we talked to, 24 APPO supporters from La Mixteca were detained and beaten in a bus terminal as they waited to board a bus to return to Huajuapan de Leon. Paramilitaries had just burned a bus headed out of the city from that terminal. The bus drivers locked the gates to the terminal to protect passengers from the chaos outside. Police busted down the doors and proceeded to beat the women, men and children inside. They were then transferred to the zocalo, put in a local jail and eventually flown to a federal prison in Nayarit. Bernadita says she was beaten several times in the process of arriving to Nayarit and authorities never told her why she was being detained or where she was being transported. Legal activists worry that Bernadita and other APPO political prisoners could be re-detained at any time.

prisoners from San Juan Diego released

2006-12-26T09:35:00.000-05:00

Sorry we haven't posted in a while. Christmas celebrations had us traveling around with Omar and Betty.

Christmas eve we threw a party in San Juan Diego FNIC for the families of the political prisoners. We didn't know but they released the some of the prisoners from that community and they arrived in the midst of the party. I didn't go because I had a stomach infection that left me doubled over in pain for 24 hours, but Emily went and I hope she will post about what it was like.

I'll catch you up on what's happened in the last few days. The afternoon after the APPO march in Huajuapan CACTUS celebrated its "posada del migrante." People who participate in CACTUS projects from Huajuapan and the surrounding mountain towns joined us in a small public park close to the CACTUS office. There was short catholic mass specifically in honor of migrants from la mixteca and the world over. We offered up our hopes and prayers for the migrants on their journey north, and for a sustainable and autonomous Mixteca that someday will not be so dependent on migration.

The call north emerges not just out of economic necessity. The myth of migration and the american dream is also a strong force. I spent about an hour talking to Doña Alberta from Xonotle at the posada; three of her kids are in the united states. She explained that young people up and leave driven by a desire to buy cars and fancy clothes. They abandon their traditions and customs and see migration and or immigration as their only path out of poverty and marginalization.

Yet Doña Alberta says she's never been hungry and that her land has always managed to provide sustenance even in the worst times. She owns her own plot of land and a house and lives a content life. It's hard for me to take a stand one way or another. I believe people should be able to do what they feel compelled to do. At the same time there a very strong messages being disseminated through the media and pop-culture that progress only lies in the north, in the United States, and not in the local communities of La Mixteca or even Mexico.

Betty works hard to challenge young peoples' notions about migration, and to educate them about how those in control of wealth and power have continuously neglected indigenous and rural people leaving La Mixteca in dependent and imporverished conditions. I think for some young folks the idea has taken hold and they've resisted the urge to migrate to stay and fight for a different Mixteca. Many of them work with CACTUS. I'm hoping to interview them to understand more about the pull north and what's it's like to stay and work for change when everyone else seems to be giving up.

I still need to tell you about our trip to Tehuacan, Puebla and all that we learned about the maquilas and the political repression labor organizers confront. And I want to tell you more about how CACTUS is working to broaden people's ideas about how to sustain the mixteca but i got to run. Emily and I are going to a meeting today of FIOB--Binational Indigenous Front. It's an organization that organizes folks on both sides of the border. Should be rad to hear more about what they do.

Thanks for reading this and supporting us. It keeps us going.

Remembering Acteal

2006-12-22T23:50:00.000-05:00

500 people took the streets today in Huajuapan de Leon to denounce the detainment of 23 political prisoners from La Mixteca, and to demand the liberation of political prisoners and the resignation of Gov. Ulises Ruiz . We were hoping that by this morning more prisoners would have been released, but as far as we know they are still being held in jails close to the city of Oaxaca.

Emily and I photographed, recorded and videotaped the march, while sketchy dudes filmed and photographed us. My sense of safety changes every two minutes. Sometimes I feel like Emily and I are untouchable, like our US citizenship means something. Then I remember our comrade Bradley Will who was murdered in October in Oaxaca for doing work not much different from what we are doing in La Mixteca. Coming to terms with how violent and repressive this world is has left me feeling powerless and ungrounded. I know what I am feeling and seeing here in Oaxaca is not unique.

Today is the 9th anniversary of the massacre of 45 unarmed Tzotziles in the community of Acteal, Chiapas, Mexico. The massacre came as response to an indigenous struggle for autonomy and self-determination. (http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/feb98mora.htm) The movement that was building with the Zapatistas in the mid-1990s in Chiapas doesn't look that much different from what is building in Oaxaca right now. And so I wonder to what degree has the government changed its tactics?

Last year La Jornada broke a story about the detainment and rape of a human rights lawyer Lydia Cacho. She had been working hard to expose human rights violations on the part of maquiladora owner Kamel Nacif. Taped phone conversations were released between the governor of Puebla Mario Marin and businessman Kamel Nacif. Nacif requested that Marin have Cacho arrested and raped in an attempt to silence her, and Marin complied.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries to work as a journalist. It ranks right up there with Iraq and Colombia for the number of journalists killed every year. A reporter in Huajuapan wrote a story about a serial rapist who was not being brought to trial because local politicians were protecting him due to his allegiance to the PAN--National Action Party. When the story ran in Las Noticias the paper was stolen everyday for a week on its way to Huajuapan. The following week the reporter was found dead.

Based on the affront to journalists I seriously doubt Mexican politicians have abandoned straight up massacre. Remembering what happened in Acteal 9 years ago made today's march in Huajuapan all the more visceral. The strength and courage it took for the families of the political prisoners to take to the streets is astonishing.

These last few days have helped me to more deeply understand the privilege I have as a US citizen. I'd rather not align myself with a particular national identity, but I can't deny how I benefit from my birth place in my role as an artist and transmitter of stories that challenge dominant notions of power and control.

Tomorrow we take a break from Huajuapan de Leon. We are headed a couple hours north to visit Omar's family. On Sunday we will celebrate christmas in San Juan Diego FNIC with the families of 10 political prisoners.

This blog is so much about Emily and I. We'll try harder to bring you more voices from La Mixteca.

The Rebel Star

2006-12-22T21:57:00.000-05:00

In Tennessee's last blog she clearly described the repressive conditions in which our Mixtecan comrades must organize. Tennessee is quite astute, quick on her feet, and constantly analyzing our surrounding environmental circumstances and conditions. Considering that I am more lingusitically challenged and travel with little documentary experience, I am lucky to have my best friend not only at my side, but often guiding us through the cultural and political intracies of supporting CACTUS's imperative work.

Tennessee is the investigator, she uncovers unassuming rocks to find hidden keys that expose the local impacts of foreign capital and global media. Frequently, she fills the gaps of that which I cannot translate. Colloquial spanish in Mexico is quite different from that in Bolivia, Venezuela and Maine. When my mind and energy expire (usually around 8pm), I space out....letting my current environment mingle with past experiences, theories and lessons. Mexico truly is everything and nothing that I thought it would be, constantly challenging my perspectives and understandings of our global home.

As Tennessee wrote yesterday, we traveled to a small town outside of Huajuapan de León to celebrate CACTUS's Christmas party. I traveled on Tenny's lap in the back of Volkswagon bug. We somehow fit six people, including two tall and fully hipped gringas, into the car's small space. Our caravan passed through protected and undeveloped terrain. Mountain passes, skyscrapping cacti, and desert oasises filled our vistas. While I have been priviledged to bear witness to grandmother redwoods, delicate gulf coast wetlands, explosive Maine autumns, smooth white sand Brazilian beaches, firery Lake Michigan sunsets, and humbling Andean peaks.....nothing has sparked such environmental curiosity as seeing life emerge in unexpected places as it does in the Mixtecan deserts.

And this curiosity continued as we celebrated with CACTUS in an unassuming town park surrounding under the shading canopy of ginormous Sabina trees. Each of us toasted to the year's past experiences and the hopes and dreams for the coming seasons. Through the tears and cheers that Solstice afternoon, I believe that I began a process of truly learning what our comrades in Mixteca have had to confront not only in these last six months, but in the last 500 years.

This wonderful planet, third from the sun, is as ecologically diverse as it is culturally. And I think that it is the heterogeneity of life and language that keeps our globe perfectly spinning in orbit amongst the universe's spontaneity.

Last night, I sat in the back of a pickup truck pondering my aforementioned hyposthesis of life's meaning. The day's earlier panoramas were now shaded, the stars barely illuminating the surrounding terrain's contours. Spilling before me was an immense night sky, and I realized that I had not been privy to celestial constallations since I left my home in the United States. It was a sky not much different from my nights in rural Maine, and one that I have dearly missed in my nights of streetlights. It was then that I came to understand, that while humanity's struggles for peace and justice are as diverse as the earth around us, we all dream looking at the same stars. And perhaps it is this reason (not that pinche Marx) that those who dedicate themselves to erradicating oppression and marginalization often unite under the symbol of the star. For it is under one universal sky that our diverse desires for hope, dignity, soverignty and justice are born.

Cartas para las Familias de los Presos Políticos en Oaxaca

2006-12-22T21:44:00.000-05:00

En estes días cuando el año termina, espero que todos de uds. encuentren amor y compañerismo
Con este solsticio del invierno, encuentro esperanza, creyendo como los días se hacen llenados más con sol, la luz apasionada seguirá iluminando la lucha oaqueña para la justicia, pero también iluminando todas formas de resistencia contra los intereses racistas, políticos y comerciales.

Hoy día es especial. Es el 22 de diciembre, y acciones de desafío, indignación y solidaridad están pasando en Oaxaca, México y el mundo. Por todos los continentes, gente de consciencia están marchando, rezando, cantando, protestando, mostrando películas, firmando peticiones, haciendo actos de desobencias civiles--demonstrando que la lucha para un Oaxaca justo y dignificado es GLOBAL.

http://nyc.indymedia.org/es/2006/12/80660.html
http://chiapas.indymedia.org/
http://www.elenemigocomun.net/
http://cml.vientos.info/node/7308

Todavía Tennessee y yo estamos en Huajuapan de León--un pueblo de 40.000 que está ubicado en el corazón del desierto mexicano. También es el centro de los Mixtecos, una de las poblaciones indigenas más grande en México. Huajuapan de León es una ciudad bien bonita que apenas está este de la frontera de Puebla y Oaxaca.

Los mixtecos han salido a la calle hoy, como los compañeros han hecho por todos rincones del mundo. Sus demandas son simples: libertad por los presos politicos, la renuncia del gobierno Ulises Ruíz, y vivir en una Oaxaca justa y dignificada.

Son 23 presos políticos de esta región de Oaxaca. 10 son de San Juan Diego--una comunidad ocupada, humilde y pequeña que está afuera de Huajuapan de León (por favor lean más en nuestro blog sobre este barrio).

Con tantos vecinos, parientes, hijos, hermanos y hermanas encarcelados, es un momento difícil para ellos de San Juan Diego. Celebrar la Navidad no es una opción para muchos.

Tennessee y yo esperamos organizar una celebración pequeña para los residentes de San Juan Diego con algunos de los fondos que muchos de uds. han dado para esta viaje. Nos gustaría llevar algunas cartas de UDS.....demonstrando LA FUERZA de los redes solidarios a pesar de las fronteras políticas y lenguajes diferentes. En esta época de lucha y represión política, apoyando a las familias de los presos es un imperativo absoluto. Por favor, nos manden tus palabras y cartas para que podamos compartir con ellos de San Juan Diego.

¡Desde el corazón del desierto mexicano!

Send your Solidarity Letters to Families of Mixtecan Political Prisoners

2006-12-22T15:57:00.000-05:00

As the year comes to a close, I hope that all of you are finding love and companionship. With the passing of the winter solstice, I find comfort believing that as the days become increasingly brighter, empassioned light will continue to illuminate not only the Oaxacan stuggle for political, social and economic justice, but also all forms of resistance against racist, partisan and commerical interests.

TODAY IS SPECIAL. It is December 22, and actions of defiance, indignation and solidarity are occuring in Oaxaca, Mexico and around the world. Throughout the continents, people of conscious are marching, praying, singing,protesting, showing movies, signing petitions, and committing acts ofcivil disobience--demonstrating that the struggle for a just and dignified Oaxaca is GLOBAL.

http://nyc.indymedia.org/es/2006/12/80660.html
http://chiapas.indymedia.org/
http://www.elenemigocomun.net/
http://cml.vientos.info/node/7308

Tennesse and I are still in Huajuapan de León--a small city of about 40,000 residents in the heart of the Mexican Desert. It is also a center of the Mixtecan people, one of Mexico's largest indigenous populations. Huajuapan de León is a beautiful Oaxacan city, falling just east of the Puebla/Oaxacan border. High plane mountains, decorated with cacti many years older than myself, dominate the surrounding environment. We stand solidly on the dry earth of La Madre Tierra: blessed, humbled and priviledged to tell our neighbors' stories.

Just as comrades in all corners of the world today are protesting, Mixtecans have taken to the streets. Their demands are simple: freedom for Oaxacan political prisoners, the resignation of GovernorUlises Ruíz, and to live a just and dignified Oaxaca.

There are 23 political prisoners from this region of Oaxaca. 10 are from San Juan Diego--a small, very poor squatter community on the outskirts of Huajuapan de León (please read other blog posts to find out more about this barrio).

With so many of their neighbors, parents, children, brothers and sisters in jail, it is a difficult time for San Juan Diego. Celebrating Christmas is out of the question for many. Tennessee and I are hoping to organize a small Christmas celebration in San Juan Diego with some of the funds that many of donated tosupport this trip. We would like to bring with us letters from YOU...demonstrating the strength of solidarity networks regardless of political borders and language.

In this time of great struggle and political repression, supporting the families of political prisoners is absolutely imperative. Please send us your words so that we can share them with those of San Juan Diego. If you do not speak/write inSpanish, we will translate. (More to come about the March today in Huajuapan de León)

From the heart of the Mixtecan Desert!
¡Desde el corazón del desierto mexicano!

mass migration and repression

2006-12-22T10:04:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the typos. I'm going fast.

Things are moving along slowly for Emily and I. CACTUS has asked us to gather material to put together a short documentary about the political prisoners from La Mixteca and their families. The catch is CACTUS folks are super busy making it hard for us to get out to the communities where the the families live. CACTUS doesn't want us to go alone for safety reasons and because they know the families won't talk unless they are there. It's been a little frustrating, but I'm still learning a lot. I'm watching the roots of a revolutionary social movement take hold. I try not to throw those ideas around, but it really feels like Oaxaca is on the edge of some pretty intense change.

Yesterday Emily and I went to CACTUS's Christmas party. We went to a town about an hour away so that everyone would feel safe meeting together. They have their suspicions that their office might be bugged. The drive there was incredible. On winding roads through the high desert we saw cactus after cactus as tall as trees; a sign that there is life in the desert. La Mixteca is a region politicians have given up on not that they ever cared. People seem complacent, settling on mass migration as a solution to the poverty the Mixteca faces, but CACTUS clearly sees other options. They are pushing for autonomy, better education, and local control of resources like land and water in the hopes that Mixtecos can create a sustainable future based on local resources instead on the seperation of families and the importation of US dollars.

They are expecting a couple years of intense repression for what they believe in and what they have openly pushed for in the last 6 months. There are already warrants out for the arrest of Betty Cariño and Omar Esparza from CACTUS. They do everything they can to avoid being detained. They don't shop in the central market downtown, in fact they don't go downtown at all. They spend as a little time as possible in the CACTUS office because that makes them easy targets. When we drive places we take crazy routes on back roads instead of taking the main drag to avoid the police. It's the most intense security culture I've ever experienced in my life and yet I don't think it's simply paranoia.

From what I've seen so far Betty and Omar are the core organizers for APPO in La Mixteca and they are bottom lining the liberation of the 23 prisoners from La Mixteca. They work really hard to bring lots of different organizations and political projects together, from communists to campesinos. I really respect the fact that they don't promote a particular idealogy except that solutions must come from the desires of the communities they work in.

Last night Emily and I got to observe an APPO meeting. There was a lot of tension between the different groups present and a lot of suspicion about who is going to sell out and negotiate with the state. Omar was encouraging the various groups present to be honest about their goals. To be trite you could have cut the tension with a knife. There was a representative there from the FPR--the Revolutionaries Peoples Front--an organization that displays posters of Stalin, Lenin and Marx in their encampments. He was criticizing anarchists for provoking the violence in the march on November 25th, which eventually landed 24 people from La Mixteca in jail. By the end of the meeting everyone was on board for today's march putting all the organizations name on the same banner. It's hard for me to imagine a community organization teaming up with Stalinists. That's not necessarily a criticism. I'm not sure how I feel yet. Right not I see it as an accomplishment. Hopefully those who aren't wrapped up inm dogma will lead the movement. That's why I put my energy and time into supporting CACTUS. I've been working with them for 3 years and I know they are able to bring people together because people trust their actions as reflecting the interests of the people.

From what I've gleaned so far CACTUS and APPO in La Mixteca are not only fighting to oust Gov. Ulises Ruiz, but for the autonomy of the region and Oaxaca. What are their motivations for doing so? I'm sure there are tons, but the impact of mass migration/immigration to the United States comes up a lot. The area around Huajuapan receives the highest amount of remittances from migrants/immigrants in the United States. The economy is based on the fact that the majority of the Mixtecan work force is in the United States sending money back. I've been coming here for three years and I can already see the detrimental affects that's had on the sovereignty of the local economy. As more and more able bodied people travel to the US there is less and less production of agricultural products and goods locally, meaning products have to be imported. In the last year a huge grocery story resembling something like COSTCO was built just 5 blocks from the central market where vendors are struggling to compete. Communities can't grow their own food, but they can buy cheap crap from transnational grocery stores.

The local government and the state government of Ulises Ruiz does nothing to confront the factors that generate the necessity to go north for work. From what I've heard folks from the Mixteca Alta, which is a drier more arid region, have always migrated. The harvest season is only two months at the most so in order to sustain themselves they migrant to more fertile sections of Oaxaca, but always to return home to their towns. When people migrant to the United States they are divided by a militarized border that separates families and makes it hard for people to return home. It's important to be clear that mass migration to the United States is not just symptomatic of ecology. It's symptomatic of corrupt politics that generate profit for the rich while robbing indigenous and campesino communities of their right to sustenance. It comes in the form of damns that channel water to lands that produce cash crops, and structural adjustment policies that dismantle subsidies for small farmers.

I realize what I've written is a rhetorical rant. Hopefully by the time I leave I will have stories that illustrate what I've said. But for right now Emily and I are hearing a lot of revolutionary rhetoric and we are working on doing more interviews. It's hard because people are super busy and super stressed.

If nothing else it is amazing that these folks have invited us into their lives to watch the construction of what they someday hope will be a revolution or better said a transformation. They share intimate details about their hopes and dreams and strategies that I don't feel like I can talk about yet, but I know in 10 years it will be amazing to look back at how Oaxaca has changed for the better having had a glimpse into how it started.

This morning Emily and I are headed to photograph and record a march to demand the liberation of the political prisoners. If we don't get arrested this morning we'll probably be fine from here on out.

This afternoon there is a "posada del migrante." A posada is Mexican tradition where folks reenacting Mary and Joseph looking for a place for Jesus to be born. CACTUS is borrowing from that tradition to draw attention to the affect migration has on La Mixteca. We'll march in honor of the struggle of migrants everywhere, but especially those from La Mixteca.

Here's a translation of the poem by Rigoberto Menchu that Emily posted yesterday in Spanish:
My homeland, mother of my grandparents
I want to caress your beauty
to contemplate your serenity and
to accompany your silence
I want to calm your pain
to cry your tears to see
your children dispersed throughout the world
struggling for place in far away
lands without joy, without peace
without mother, without nothing

Actions throughout the United States in Solidarity with Oaxaca

2006-12-21T12:44:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow Tennessee and I will be participating in an event organized by CACTUS in Huajaupan de Leon. We will be marching and celebrating at "la Posada del Migrante."

Please check out this website and consider participating in events throughout the United States in solidarity with the people of Huajaupan de Leon, Oaxaca and Mexico.
http://elenemigocomun.net/727

Adelante

Tierra mía, madre de mis abuelos quisiera acariciar tu belleza contemplar tu serenidad y acompañar tu silencio quisiera calmar tu dolor llorar tus lágriams al ver tus hijos dispersos por el mundo regateando posada en tierras lejanas sin alegría, sin paz, sin madre, sin nada!

first settlers of San Juan Diego FNIC

2006-12-20T19:27:00.000-05:00

These two shopkeepers were the first to settle San Juan Diego, a squatter community of the National Federation of Indigenous People and Campesinos.

prisoners transferred back to oaxaca

2006-12-20T19:25:00.000-05:00

we just got word that 91 prisoners have been transferred from the federal prison in nayarit to a detention center in oaxaca. there are still four prisoners in nayarit. that's all we know so far.

Photo of Pablo Ortiz

2006-12-20T18:37:00.000-05:00

Pablo Ortiz and two of his kids, Itzel Yazmin and Silvino. Since November 25th their mother Bernadita Ortiz Bautista has been detained by the Mexican Federal Police for her participation in a march calling for the resignation of Oaxacan Governor Ulises Ruiz.

Prisoners from La Mixteca

2006-12-20T13:06:00.000-05:00

On November 25th, after the seventh mega march organized by APPO (Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca) there were over 140 people arrested from throughout Oaxaca. They were first detained in Oaxaca City and then transported to a federal prison thirty hours away by bus in Nayarit.

On December 18th Emily and I read in La Jornada (the leftist newspaper in Mexico) that 43 of the prisoners had been released from a federal prison in Nayarit. One of them is from the community of San Juan Diego in La Mixteca. CACTUS--Center for Communal Support--is coordinating the fight for the release of the remaining 23 prisoners from La Mixteca, and all political prisoners connected to the struggle to oust Governor Ulises Ruiz.

When and if the prisoners are released they will still have to appear in court to determine their innocence. Given the political climate in Mexico and the recent inauguration of President Calderon, our friends here at CACTUS tell us the fight to free the political prisoners will be long and arduos.

Yesterday we went to visit San Juan Diego, a small community outside of Huajuapan de Leon. From this community alone there are still nine people imprisoned in Nayarit.

San Juan Diego is a squatter community founded by FNIC--National Federation of Indigenous Peoples and Campesinos--five years ago. There are no more than 100 families living there. Many of the residents migrated from indigenous communities high in the mountains of the La Mixteca Alta to find work as campesinos or tradesmen closer to the Huajuapan de Leon.

Pablo Ortiz moved his family to San Juan Batista two years ago so his oldest children would have the opportunity to attend high school. He works as a campesino. On the morning of Saturday November 25th he left for work at dawn. When he came back that evening his wife and kids were no where to be found.

Pablo would come to find out that his wife and kids had been detained in Oaxaca after the march. Bernadita, Alejandro, Beatriz Belen and Rosalva were headed towards the bus terminal in Oaxaca City to catch a bus to Huajuapan de Leon when the federal police detained and beat them.

Pablo returned home at 9pm that Saturday, but he couldn't find his wife or kids. He asked his neighbors if they had seen his family. A neighbor told him that they had gone to the march and supposedly they'd been grabbed by the police.

Pablo explained his wife Bernadita and three of his kids decided to attend the mega march in Oaxaca City to speak out against the impoverished conditions they live in, and to support the continuation of APPO.

Almost a week later his two oldest daughters were released and returned home, but Bernadita and the oldest son, Alejandro, were transferred to a federal prison in Nayarit. Pablo hasn't been able to communicate with his wife or son since they were detained. The information he has about what happened to his son and wife is from what two of his daughters, Beatriz Belen and Rosalua, observed before they were separated from their mom. The two girls told CACTUS that while in detention the police removed their shoes and made them stand on a wet floor with live electric cables in order to deliver them electric shocks.

Beatriz Belen was really shy about sharing her experiences with us, but she did explain that the last month with 10 community members in jail has hit their small community hard. Normally on December 9th they celebrate San Juan Diego Day for which their town is named. This year nobody wanted to celebrate.

Pablo hasn't been able to work in weeks because he has to stay home to take care of his eight kids. Despite the fact that he receives some money to buy tortillas from folks involved in APPO, Pablo is struggling to feed his children and find the money to continue to send them to school.

Most of the prisoners are being charged with crimes like property destruction and rioting. It's hard to imagine Pablo's wife Bernadita and his three kids beating up cops or lighting buildings on fire.

Emily and I are doing are best to understand how we can support these communities and their political prisoners. Handing them a check to help them buy food for a week is one option. We know this going to be a long fight and we are investigating where and what kind of pressure needs to be applied to ensure that Bernadita and her comrades are not forever separated from their families for crimes they did not committ.

To read more about the released prisoners check out this article from La Jornada. (It's in Spanish)
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2006/12/18/index.php?section=politica&article=009n1pol

Lights on the Horizon

2006-12-18T23:26:00.000-05:00

I spent close to 24 hours en route from my home in Montville, Maine in order to get to Mexico City. It took a ride in the trunk of my friend´s suburu station wagon, a quick bus ride from portland to boston, a little talking to the Continental Airlines agent (who almost didnt let me on the plane because my passport is apparently too tattered), and two long flights....but I made it through immigration without problems.

While desending into DF, I took my eyes off my reading material to glance out the plane´s window. Shock doesnt quite do justice to explain the emotions that raced through my heart at the sight before me. The night sky that I am so accostomed to in Montville was flipped before my eyes. There was not a star to be seen, instead the city lights stretched as far as the eye can see. I have never in my life seen such immense human impact. dense urbanization until the horizon and beyond. and as the plane continued towards the tarmac, i understood why my friend holds this place so close to her heart....we are in a place of mass humanity. art and diversity is in every corner. plants break through the concrete. artesanos dance in the zocolo. revolutionary love emerges from unexpected places. Mexico is everything and nothing that i thought it would be.

Today, Tennessee and I met her comrade from CACTUS. Betty is a mother, sister, daughter, organizer and freedom fighter. Her energy and spirit are clearly rooted in visions and dreams for a better Mixteca, Oaxaca, Mexico and world. Betty sees through the facades of neoliberalism because of her profound experiences of living with the economic, political and cultural hardships that the ideology has brought to her community. The world would be a more loving place if there were more people like this woman.

Despite traveling all morning with her two children that she hadnt seen for a month, Betty spent hours with Tennessee and I this morning. She brought us up to date on her specific situation and the political repression that her people are enduring.

She told us of journalists "accidently" dying and families trying to get their children and parents out of jail. Betty also said that Governor Ulises Ruiz came to Huajuapan de Leon (in la Mixteca) this past weekend. His visit required 1,000 federal police. I guess the people are just a little fed up with the man.

Betty also shared with us her vision of our trip and what CACTUS would like us to document in our time here. We hopefully will be working with Mixtecan families who have members in jail.

There is so much more to tell. But now we must be off to our bus that will take us to La Mixteca.

en camino a la mixteca

2006-12-18T22:31:00.000-05:00

The first post to the blog must begin with a huge thank you to everyone supporting the work Emily and I have come to do in Mexico. The money and supplies you all donated are going directly to CACTUS-Center for Communal Support-based in La Mixteca region of Oaxaca.

Betty from CACTUS met with us today in Mexico City. It was amazing to see her and her two kids who she hadn't seen in month. Betty talked to Emily and I for hours today about the situation in Oaxaca and more specifically in La Mixteca.

Tonight we leave for Huajuapan de Leon in La Mixteca region of Oaxaca to see for ourselves what's happening there.

More concrete info to come soon.