THE ROAD FROM OAXACA

[Col. Writ. 11/9/06]
Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal

Several weeks ago, a long, dusty trail of thousands winded their way from the southern city of Oaxaca, to the capital of Mexico City, some 800 kilometers (or over 250 miles) to support democracy, and demand the removal of the governor, who got there through a stolen, and deeply corrupt election.

The marchers, a motley crew of teachers, students, farmers, vendors, and the like, made their tortuous way over mountain and valleys, through slashing rains, blistering heat, and numbing cold, marching for 19 days, to take their complaints to the seat of government.

The group, calling itself the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (or APPO, the Spanish acronym for Asemblea Popular del Pueblo de Oaxaca), has rocked Mexico with its strong, principled insistence that elections be truly fair and free of corruption, and that the will of the People be heard.

I've actually been reading about the events in Oaxaca for several weeks, and every time I read about them, I thought of Americans, who quietly accepted the corrupt elections of 2000, and of 2004, like lambs being led to shishkabobs.

For, the stolen elections of 2000 in Florida, and later 2004 in Ohio, have done unprecedented damage to the very notion of democracy, and shattered the faith of millions in the electoral process.

The people of Oaxaca, braving not just the natural elements, but the political ones as well, indeed, the terrorism of the 'instruments of the state' (police and military violence), have proven by their march and protests that true democracy is deeply important to the people.

The APPO, which has sparked resistance throughout Mexico City, and in other parts of the country, has created a political crisis in the nation, by its fervent demand for the removal of Oaxaca governor, Ulises Ruiz, and the restoration of democracy.

The crisis arises from the fact that many of the country's political parties are doing their damnedest to silence, derail, or intimidate the people; for if they are successful (they fear) there will be two, three, a dozen Oaxacas all across the country.

Oaxaca, although the poorest state in Mexico, and one with the largest indigenous population, is inspiring people far and beyond its southern Mexican borders.

The Oaxaca resistance was born in repression, when Governor Ruiz ordered the police assault on the striking Oaxaca teachers' union in June. The teachers fought back, and within days, over 300,000 people gathered in a mass march to support the union. Out of that massive outpouring of support came the APPO, the Popular Assembly. The continuing crisis in Mexico may push social forces to join the radicalizing efforts of the APPO, or may open the door to the threatened terror of the 'instruments of the state.' To be frank, what began in repression may indeed end in more repression; but that will not, nor could truly be the end.

That's because the forces that gave rise to APPO are still rumbling barely beneath the surface, ready to emerge in another state, where workers and the poor are struggling to resist the ravenous forces of globalism.

When the poor are treated poorly, when workers are poorly paid, the conditions for resistance are already present.

And while the temptation of the State to use its brutal 'instruments' may be strong, it's also very possible that it may spark more resistance, deeper and broader.

Oaxaca is spreading like the wind, and the examples of popular and indigenous resistance from Mexico, like the APPO, and the Zapatistas, and various struggles from throughout Latin America, are spreading also.

The people of Oaxaca should be supported, not just with words, but with similar organizing against flawed and corrupt elections, from folks all over the world.

It should begin with the people of the U.S.

Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal


Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner in the United States on death row. For more information on Mumia's case, check out the following web sites:

Yet Another Witness Comes Forward and Refutes The Frame-Up Of Mumia Abu-Jamal!
http://www.freemumia.com/policecoercion.html

Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://www.laboractionmumia.org/

International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://www.mumia.org/freedom.now/

Free Mumia Coalition, NYC
http://www.freemumia.com/

Socialist Action Free Mumia Site
http://www.freemumia.org

Chicago Committe To Free Mumia Abu_Jamal
http://www.chicagofreemumia.org/

Liberation News
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news

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Where Murderers Still Stalk the Streets, Protected by the Police

By ROCHELLE GAUSE

Running as fast as I can, surrounded by hundreds of others, I can hear screams behind me. Glancing back, through the darkness of night I can only differentiate between the masses running with me and the federal police by the light reflecting off their shields and face masks. They are still advancing. A hand pushes my left shoulder and I realize there are medics behind me trying to run from the police while carrying a man on a stretcher clasping a bloody cloth to his head. The medics are trying to reach the makeshift clinic that the movement set up in a building just a few feet ahead. I continue to run block after block as more people pour in from side streets. The police are obviously advancing on multiple streets simultaneously. Panic is starting to set in. Rushing through my mind are the stories I have listened too over an over in the past two weeks while interviewing those who have suffered human rights violations at the hands of the federal police; the stories of sexual assault, of beatings, of psychological torture, of death threats. A few men duck in to an alley, I follow unsure if I am escaping the danger or running directly into it. A woman and her daughter, who recognize me from the internet cafe, motion us into their home. Inside I lean against the wall and slide to the floor. Immediately I think of those who were unable to find a place to hide, of those who could not run, people of all ages had been in the streets all day. I hear gunshots.


7th Mega March Turned Confrontation

Saturday, November 25th, had begun with the 7th Megamarch. Thousands had marched from the outskirts of Santa María Coyotepec to the Oaxaca City center. It was yet another incredible showing of support for the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO). The march was calling for the removal of both the corrupt governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, and the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) who have been in Oaxaca for almost a month now. The demonstrators were a highly diverse group, including people of all ages, from various indigenous groups, unions, social organizations and rural villages. People gathered along the streets applauding as the march passed. Many handed out tangerines, water and sandwiches to the crowd.

When they arrived in the city the plan was to encircle the center square for 48 hours. This is the square where striking teachers from all over the state of Oaxaca created an encampment which led to the beginning of the movement over 6 months ago. The federal police have occupied it since they entered Oaxaca on October 29th. As the people began the circle, the police in full riot gear, refined their formation at each of the entrances backed by a police officer armed with live ammunition on top of an armoured vehicle. Although APPO had made it clear that the plan was to remain completely non-violent, within half an hour street battles broke out between the movement and the police in at least two of the entrances. Some members of the movement, armed with rocks, Molotov cocktails and fireworks, faced off with the police who used an incredible amount of tear gas, rocks and marbles shot with slingshots. Also, according to LIMEDDH, the Mexican League in Defense of Human Rights, state government backed paramilitaries were seen on the roofs of buildings helping to provoke the confrontations. Earlier in the day the radio station affiliated with Ulises political party (Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI) had called for people to dump boiling water and acid on the demonstrators.


Federal Police Advance

After awhile the police pushed the people north up the hill, at one point taking over the Santo Domingo plaza where the movement has been centered since the police forced them out of the main square. The police continued to fire teargas into the crowd and burnt the tarps and other belongings of the movement and vendors in the Santo Domingo plaza. The report from APPO's most recent Constitutive Congress were scattered all over the ground. During this time plain clothed police were detaining people in the streets. After the police retreated back to the main square, many movement members regrouped in Santo Domingo as night was falling.

Suddenly the police advanced over eight blocks forcing the crowd to continue running north of the main square. Paramilitary groups also arrived on the scene shooting into the crowd as people ran for their lives. Movement members attempted to set up barricades, I witnessed many women scrambling to gather rocks for defense, breaking stones off the fancy plazas were Ulises has squandered the states money. Cars and government buildings were lit on fire. Throughout the next few hours federal police and plain clothed gunmen continued to attack members of the movement who had taken cover in various locations. Three movement members were killed, 39 disappeared, 149 detained, and over 140 injured (20 with live ammunition), not including the hundred people the medics assisted who were overwhelmed by the gas and pepper spray. And this is just on November 25th.

The people of Oaxaca who are facing this fate are guilty of the crime of demanding justice and trying to organize a democratic alternative to the corrupt and repressive leadership that governs their state. The Mexican federal government's response, supposedly to restore order, has instead attempted to maintain the exploitive status quo through further repression and with no regard for the true root causes of this conflict, the extreme poverty and unjust government policies that benefit a few at the cost of the majority. According to Yessica Sanchez of LIMMEDH, "It is clear that the PFP are not interested in instilling peace, what they come to do is intimidate and try to criminalize the social movement in Oaxaca." If the federal police had come to Oaxaca with the true intention of restoring order, those who have committed the violence in the last 6 months of the struggle would be brought to justice. Nowhere are movement members safe from the threat of armed attack. Members of the movement have been killed while handing out coffee to late night barricades, while participating in a march, or while leaving a neighborhood APPO meeting. Their murderers still walk the streets, now with the added protection and assistance of the PFP.


Ulises Claims Victory

On the morning after the mass repression, standing in the very spot where hundreds had run for their lives less than 18 hours before, Governor Ulises claimed victory. It had been months since he had been able to show his face in the city. As helicopters flew overhead, Governor Ulises, surrounded by plain clothed police, explained that now Oaxaca belongs to the true Oaxaqueños. "We who love Oaxaca, its history and its traditions feel profoundly offended and attacked by the vandals' actions on Saturday. The responsible are being arrested and should be held accountable for their actions in the face of justice. Today with the help of the PFP and the state forces we have recuperated the heart of Oaxaca for the Oaxaqueños and for all Mexicans." For hours prior to this press spectacle workers had cleaned up the remains of the police repression, they has picked up the tear gas canisters, the graffiti and stencils had been painted over. A large water truck has sprayed away the dried blood and burnt remains of the movement from the square.

Since November 25th the federal police have surrounded the Santo Domingo plaza and most large parks in the city, they are routinely patrolling the streets of Oaxaca. Reports of people being taken out of their homes or picked up off the streets by armed gunmen are being called in to Radio Universidad regularly. The station has once again called for support in fear that the police will manage to ignore the autonomous nature of the university and destroy the station, the primary means of communication remaining for the movement. Students of the College of Medicine at the Benito Juárez Autonomous University organized a press conference to share their testimonies of witnessing municipal police kill three demonstrators during Saturday's repression, taking their bodies with them. During the press conference armed gunmen fired into the building and took one student. There were 60 more detentions on November 27th. The PRI radio station has called for the burning of EDUCA offices, a well respected social organization that operates throughout the state. The station has also been reading on the air the addresses where suspected movement members and internationals are hiding. Over 140 of the movement members detained by the police have been transported far from their families, out of the state of Oaxaca, to federal prison.

Those in power continue to try to suppress this movement with intimidation, with violence, with murder because change is in motion. According to Cesar Chavez, "once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours." On November 10th-12th, the movement held a Constitutive Congress where they elected 220 representatives from all seven regions, formalizing the popular governance structure of APPO. 3000 people attended the forum further defining their program of struggle and creating a true bottom up alternative to the corrupt political parties that run the state. I still fear for the people, how much suffering they will have to face. On November 20th there were an incredible number of actions worldwide in solidarity with the people of Oaxaca but there needs to be an even larger outcry. Please consider getting involved in solidarity actions. This is not simply to support the people of Oaxaca achieve self determination and social justice. They are providing a model for the rest of Mexico to also stand up in the face of poverty estimated at over 50 percent of the population, of losing their land and resources to foreign corporations, of having to flee to the US illegally to be able to provide for their families.

On the national level, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador held his own swearing in ceremony on November 20th as the "legitimate president" of Mexico in front of hundreds of thousands of supporters. Two days prior he told his supporters "Those neo-fascist reactionaries better not think they'll have room to maneuver, we're going to keep them on a short leash." Massive civil disobedience is planned for December 1st, the date of the inauguration ceremony for Felipe Calderon, who "won" the presidential election by less than one percentage point with clear evidence of fraud. The trend of electing leftist leadership continues in Latin America, confronting the injustice of neoliberal policies and beginning to unravel the exploitive policies that have left the majority of their population in immense poverty. At the same time, President Bush has quietly dropped the ban on training the militaries of Latin America. As our country readies itself to carry on our legacy of genocide to prevent the much needed changes the people are demanding, we must become active. Not only for the people of Oaxaca, or Mexico, or Latin America but for the global struggle that is taking root.

Rochelle Gause lives in Olympia, Washington. She can be reached at rochelle@riseup.net

Mexican police clear final barricade in Oaxaca, protesters turn over radio station

OAXACA, Mexico

Authorities removed the last significant barricade erected by leftist protesters as part of their six-month takeover of Oaxaca City on Wednesday, and activists — some of them weeping — returned a seized radio station to university officials.

The loss of Radio University — which had served as the movement's nerve center, alerting protesters to police movements — and the removal of a barricade made of hijacked, burned-out vehicles just outside the campus' walls, appeared to be a huge setback for the once-powerful protest movement.

For the first time in months, police appeared to control this entire colonial city in southern Mexico, popular among tourists for its picturesque, arch-ringed main square.

A group of about 20 protesters, some of whom wept while others shouted slogans, met with officials of the state's public university to turn the equipment and offices of Radio University back over to academic personnel.

Earlier in the day, about 200 government employees used bulldozers and dump trucks to cart off the burned-out husks of 22 buses and cars from an intersection where supporters of the leftist Oaxaca People's Assembly had piled them up to block traffic.

The barricade had been the scene of confrontations between demonstrators and police in the weeks after federal officers entered the city on Oct. 29 to retake the city's center.

Police control over other areas of the city was tenuous or spotty for much of November, but authorities clamped down after violent demonstrations last weekend that resulted in more than 150 arrests, 43 injuries and the burning of vehicles and buildings.

Protest leaders — including some of the amateur announcers who had used Radio University to issue calls for protests, identify the movement's enemies and broadcast political diatribes — were reportedly holed up at a church to avoid arrest.

The protests began in late May as a strike by teachers seeking higher pay, and quickly exploded into a broad movement. The teachers later accepted pay raises and returned to work, but their leftist allies continued to demand the resignation of Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whom they accuse of violence and corruption.

The protests paralyzed the city for six months and scared away tourism, the city's economic lifeblood. Following an attempt by Ruiz's government to dislodge them in June, strikers and protesters seized several private radio and television stations, but later abandoned all but Radio University.

Oaxaca: APPO leaders "disappeared"

by Bill Weinberg
From Agencia Proceso (APRO), Nov. 25 via Chiapas95 (our translation):

OAXACA -- The Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) has announced the "forced disappearance" of the movement's spokesperso, Cesar Mateos Benitez, and of Jorge Sosa, cousin of its principal leader Flavio Sosa.

Florentino Lopez Martinez, member of APPO's Press Commission, placed the responsibility for the disappearances with the government of Ulises Ruiz, and said they would not respond to the provocation.

Before his "forced disappearance," Mateos Benitez had held a press conference in the APPO encampment, where he reiterated that "the conflict in Oaxaca has not ended, and will not end until the fall of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz."

The Popular Assembly spokesman also announced a plan of action for that Saturday Nov. 25, when a mega-march would be held, with the aim of encircling the Federal Preventative Police (PFP).

Among other actions, he announced plans to occupy toll booths on the highway to Mexico City.

The APPO spokesperson said that the president elect, Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, "still has the opportunity to send a message to the nation and the Mexican people: whether he will resolve political conflicts with the PFP, or truly through the political process."

In the case of Oaxaca, he said, it is clear that the solution to the conflict is the exit of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and of the Federal Preventative Police.

He questioned the position of the President of the Republic and his Secretary of Government, Carlos Abascal Carranza, because with their actions they have only protected the assassins contracted by Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.

Later, the spoksman for the presidency, Ruben Aguilar, contradicted Gov. Ulises Ruiz's statement that the conflict had ended, and affirmed that the PFP will remain in Oaxaca until governability is restored. APPO responded that "this makes it clear that they have come to protect the sicarios [assassins] of Ulises Ruiz."

"It is clear that the PFP have not brought tranquility to Oaxaca and the proof of this is the rape of women in the zocalo [central plaza], the robbery of a bank two blocks from where they are stationed, the ransacking of commerical establishments in the historic center, the homicide of a hotel manager, the raiding of houses, the burning of the APPO camp; they are not bringing security to society, they are only assisting those who attack the popular movement," the APPO spokesperson affirmed.

At the daily press conference in the camp of resistance, APPO repeated its principal demand for the exit of Ulises Ruiz and his paramilitary groups and porros [provocateurs] commanded by Helidoro Diaz Escarraga, Lino Celaya Luria, Jorge Franco, Bulmaro Rito, Manuel Marti'nez and Lizbeth Caña Cadeza.

APPO reiterated its demand the genocide charges be brought against President Vicente Fox, Ulises Ruiz and the commanders of the PFP; and called for the intervention of international organizations, and called on the PGR [federal prosecutor] to clear up the assassinations committed in the six months of the conflict.

Meanwhile, five women of the Coordinadora de Mujeres Oaxaqueñas [Coordinating Body of Oaxacan Women] lifted their hunger strike to participate in the Plan of Action for Saturday Nov. 25.

They announced at on Saturday at 10.00 in the morning, a mega-march would leave for the House of Government, located in Santa Maria Coyotepec, to remember the "massacre in this municipality" on Oct. 27, and would then move to the capital and attempt to encircle the PFP camped in the zocalo.

Although the mobilization would be peaceful, another member of the APPO Press Commission, Marcelino Coache, said that they would not respond to provocations but warned that if they were attacked they would respond in similar manner.

He said that the 260 members of the APPO State Council were in charge of security and order on the march to avoid infiltrators, but if there is aggression by the PFP, they would respond.

DN Headlines

Mexican Lawmakers Scuffle Over Calderon Inauguration
In Mexico, the parliament was the site of a major scuffle Tuesday as rival lawmakers fought over a protest against this week’s inauguration of president-elect Felipe Calderon. Lawmakers threw chairs and exchanged punches when one group aligned with defeated presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador tried to take the podium where Calderon is due to be sworn in. Lopez Obrador’s supporters have vowed to prevent Calderon’s inauguration amid allegations he stole Mexico’s elections with massive fraud. Official results show Calderon won the election by less than one percentage point.

Calderon Criticized for Internal Secretary Appointment
Meanwhile, Calderón is coming under intense criticism for his pick to oversee internal security. On Tuesday, Calderon announced the appointment of Francisco Ramírez Acuña as Interior Secretary. Acuna is widely blamed for the detention and mistreatment of scores of protesters two years ago in Jalisco, where he served as state governor. Many analysts say the appointment could signal the Calderon government intends to deal with the Oaxaca uprising with repression. In an interview with the Financial Times, Tamara Taraciuk of Human Rights Watch said: “This appointment sends a terrible signal both to the domestic and international communities.”

Bolivian Senate Approves Land-Reform Bill
In Bolivia, Bolivia's Senate has approved a landmark measure to distribute idle or illegally-held land to the poor. The agrarian reform bill came under heavy opposition from senators tied to wealthy landowners. But the opposition splintered after weeks of protest from landless Indians who marched on the capitol La Paz. Bolivian President Evo Morales addressed them at a rally on Tuesday.

Bolivian President Evo Morales: "The productive farms will be respected, but there is land that is unproductive, there are people that illegally monopolize thousands of hectares of land. In the dictatorships sometimes political powers would take advantage of disadvantaged people. These lands, with the help of the State - will be given back to the people that have no land."

The land reform bill was already approved by Bolivia's lower house earlier this month but needed Senate approval to come into law.

Castro Too Ill for 80th Birthday Celebrations
In Cuba, President Fidel Castro released a statement Tuesday announcing he will not attend celebrations this week for his eightieth birthday. Castro says his doctors told him he is not ready for public events as continues to recover from intestinal surgery.

Urgent Action: Fear of torture or ill-treatment / incommunicado detention

Following a violent confrontation between supporters of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (Asamblea Popular del Pueblo de Oaxaca, APPO) and the Federal Preventive Police (Policia Federal Preventiva, PFP) in the centre of Oaxaca on 25 November, at least 149 people have been detained. Amnesty International believes that they may be at risk of torture or ill-treatment while in custody.

The violence followed a demonstration organized by APPO supporters, to protest against the presence of PFP in the city and to call for the resignation of the Governor of Oaxaca. During the clashes with the police, dozens of people were reportedly injured by stones and intoxicated by teargas. There were also several reports that some people had been shot and wounded. Dozens of cars and buses and several public buildings, including the State Superior Court (Tribunal Superior de Justicia) and a theatre, were set on fire. According to reports, groups of armed men wearing balaclavas, believed to be state police, shot at protesters and buildings and arrested scores of people, several of whom reportedly had no involvement in the demonstrations.

By the end of the day, the authorities published the names of 149 people being held in two state prisons of Tlacolula and Miahuatlan, both outside the city of Oaxaca. All detainees have reportedly been denied access to family and independent legal counsel (suspects are generally forced to rely on inadequate public defenders provided by the authorities). There are also reports that on 27 November, 141 detainees were transferred to a prison in the remote state of Nayarit. Families and human rights organizations have not been informed of the charges faced by those in detention.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
An Amnesty International delegation recently visited the city of Oaxaca and interviewed scores of victims of human rights violations committed during the ongoing crisis in Oaxaca. The organization documented the repeated violations committed by unidentified armed groups, believed to be state and municipal police officers working in plain clothes, who make arrests without identifying themselves or explaining the reasons for arrests. The organization documented in several cases the use of incommunicado detention over several days. The organization also received credible reports that detainees had been tortured and ill-treated, primarily by state and municipal police, but also by members of the PFP.

In May 2006 teachers initiated a strike in Oaxaca state calling for improved pay and conditions, and occupied the main square and surrounding streets. An attempt by state police to forcibly evict teachers on 14 June led to a radicalization of the protest and the formation on of the Asamblea Popular del Pueblo de Oaxaca, APPO (Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca), an umbrella organization of social and political groups in support of the teachers and calling for the resignation of the state governor. As the climate of violence in the city increased, armed police in plain clothes started to arbitrarily detain protesters and were reportedly responsible for several shootings. Protesters established barricades in many neighborhoods in late August and the security situation further declined as unidentified armed men continued to target opposition supporters in marches and on barricades. On 29 October, the PFP entered the city to restore order. The operation resulted in the death of two civilians and the detention and injury of scores of others. Many of those who have been detained during the crisis have been released reportedly as a result of political negotiations, but with no clear idea of whether they may face re-arrest at a future date.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:

- calling on the authorities to ensure all those detained during protests on 25 November are allowed immediate access to families, adequate medical attention and legal counsel of their choice;

- calling for them to be either charged with a recognizably criminal offence or released immediately;

- calling on the authorities to ensure the physical and mental integrity of those in custody and to carry out immediate and impartial investigations into allegations of torture or ill-treatment;

- reminding the authorities to their duty to maintain public order while protecting the human rights of all people, and ensuring that the use of force is proportionate and necessary to confront the threat faced;

- calling for an immediate and impartial investigation into the use of armed groups, believed to be state and municipal police, operating illegally to attack and detain protesters and passers-by, and for those responsible to be held to account;

- urging the federal and state authorities to ensure that all measures taken to address the crisis in Oaxaca fully respect international human rights law, and calling for them to avoid taking action which may worsen the human rights situation.

APPEALS TO:
Minister of the Interior:
Lic. Carlos Abascal Carranza
Secretario de Gobernacion, Secretaria de Gobernacion
Bucareli 99, 1er. piso
Col. Juarez, Delegacion Cuauhtemoc
Mexico D.F., C.P.06600, MEXICO
Fax: 011 52 55 5093 3414
Salutation: Dear Minister/ Estimado Secretario de Gobernacion

Minister of Public Security:
Lic. Eduardo Medina Mora
Secretario de Seguridad Publica, Secretaria de Seguridad Publica
Paseo de la Reforma No.364, piso 16
Colonia Juarez, Delegacion Cuahutemoc
Mexico DF. C.P. 06600, MEXICO
Fax: 01152 55 5241 8393
Salutation: Senor Secretario / Dear Minister

Governor of Oaxaca:
Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
Gobernador del Estado de Oaxaca, Carretera Oaxaca - Puerto Angel, Km. 9.5
Santa Maria Coyotopec
C. P. 71254, Oaxaca
Oaxaca, MEXICO
Fax: 011 52 951 511 6879 (if someone answers, say ‘’me da tono de fax, por favor'’)
Salutation: Senor Gobernador / Dear Governor

Interior Minister of Oaxaca:
Lic. Jorge Franco Vargas
Secretario General de Gobierno del Estado de Oaxaca
Constitucion 519
Esq. Martires de Tacubaya, Oaxaca
Oaxaca, MEXICO
Fax: 011 52 951 132 5378
Salutation: Senor Secretario / Dear Secretary

President of the National Human Rights Commission:
Dr. Jose Luis Soberanes Fernandez
Presidente de la Comision Nacional de Derechos Humanos (CNDH)
Periferico Sur 3469, 5º piso
Col. San Jeronimo Lidice
Mexico D.F. 10200, MEXICO
Fax: 011 52 55 5681 7199
Salutation: Dear President / Estimado Presidente

COPIES TO:
President of the Oaxaca State Human Rights Commission:
Dr. Jaime Perez Jimenez
Presidente de la Comision Estatal
Calle de los Derechos Humanos no. 210, Colonia America
C.P. 68050, Oaxaca
Oaxaca, Mexico
Fax: 011 52 951 503 0220
Salutation: Dear President / Estimado Presidente

Human rights organization in Oaxaca:
Red Oaxaquena de Derechos Humanos
Calle Crespo 524 Interior 4-E, Col. Centro, Oaxaca
Oaxaca, CP. 68000, MEXICO

Ambassador Carlos Alberto De Icaza Gonzalez
Embassy of Mexico
1911 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington DC 20006
Fax: 1 202 728 1698

Please send appeals immediately. Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 9 January 2006.

———————————-
Tip of the Month:
If you have questions, please call, write, fax, or email the AIUSA Urgent Action office. Also, please note our new address in DC (below), and update your records if you have our old Colorado address on file.

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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights.

This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact information and stop action date (if applicable).
Thank you for your help with this appeal.

Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566

———————————-
END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL

Stockpile in case of Venezuela vote chaos, U.S. says

[Thanks ToniD for the link]

CARACAS, Venezuela

The United States warned people to stockpile food, water and medicine in Venezuela in case a vote on Sunday sparks public disorder as anti-U.S. President Hugo Chavez seeks reelection.

In a warning to Americans living in Venezuela, which provides about 12 percent of U.S. oil imports, the U.S. Embassy said on Tuesday it had no information Venezuela would slip into lawlessness.

But it warned on its Web site (http://caracas.usembassy.gov/wwwh2848.html) that the measures would be a sensible precaution in a polarized nation where politics often stokes violent street protests and strikes.

Chavez says he is running against the United States, which he accuses of trying to destabilize his government.

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The embassy advice, which noted the government's anti-American sentiment, came as many Venezuelans followed their own time-honored safeguard of buying candles, canned food and bottled water in case of any post-vote emergency.

Polls generally show Chavez comfortably winning another six-year term based on huge backing from the poor majority who have benefited from his high social spending.

His rival Manuel Rosales has united the opposition but draws his support mainly from the minority ranks of the upper- and middle-classes.

Chavez has warned the opposition will cry fraud, mobilize street protests and try to foment a military revolt. The opposition denies the charges.

U.S. Embassies worldwide regularly issue warnings to Americans abroad to take precautions before major political events in volatile countries.

Paraguay's president fires military chief

Asuncion, Paraguay

Paraguay's president has unexpectedly fired the country's armed forces chief, and 58 military and police officers, calling it a routine reshuffling of the military high command while dismissing suggestions it was politically motivated.

President Nicanor Duarte did not provide a reason for Sunday's dismissals, aside from saying they were "normal in the institutional life of the military." However, opposition lawmakers had been clamouring for the ouster of the armed forces chief, General Key Kanazawa, for the last year.

Last December, Senators criticised Kanazawa for releasing a signed communique criticising legislators for failing to promote some 300 military officers.

15th Day in Oaxaca

Xochitl writes:
As always, I am here as a witness of the events here in Oaxaca. The real struggle, the real risks, and the real revolution is with the people of Oaxaca.

So overnight I woke up every few hours to listen to the livestream of Radio Universidad, and it continued to transmit. Just before 6 am I woke up to hear the last few bars of “Venceremos” then the Radio stopped transmitting, and there was only the background interminable march music that is broadcasted by Radio enemies to interfere with the signal. I freaked, thinking that the attack had happened, they had played one last song, and it was over. Then I realized they were taking the required several hour break from radio transmissions. Phew.

In the morning people gathered for the march from the University to the Santo Domingo plaza. We weren’t able to go because it seemed unsafe to travel there. Police were traveling around the University neighborhood, searching people, checking their ID, and detaining some. At about 10 am a message came through the radio that 300 people had gathered, and they needed more Oaxaquenos for the march. We hoped to meet the march part-way on their route, and continue on to Santo Domingo. Then we heard that the PFPs had taken over the Santo Domingo plaza, to prevent APPO and other organizations from re-establishing their encampment there, and that there were military and police at the nearby Juarez park, possibly blocking people from creating another planton there. The march was suspended, I suspect for security reasons.

We walked towards Santo Domingo, to see what was going on there.There were PFPs stationed at each of the entrances. The entire plaza had been scoured and cleaned. On the night of November 25, after hours of street battle, the police gathered and burned all the tarps and materials left by movement people in the Santo Domingo planton. Then on the 26th all the garbage was picked up, and all the graffiti painted over. It was as if there never was an emcampment there, which I would guess was the idea.

Throughout the day we heard about more police aggressions and detentions. A truck near the airport was stopped, and the driver shot. Police are taking people from their houses and taking them away. There are persistent rumors of mass graves outside of Oaxaca City, though no one has definite proof.

We also get updates on November 25. According to the latest information there have been 6 confirmed deaths, though we also have heard that PFPs were bragging that they had killed at least 13 and disappeared the bodies. There was a shooting late at night at the Facultad de Medicine (the medical school) where many people had sought refuge. As they left URO-supporters opened fire, killing at least 3 and wounding many.

The situation is very tense. Danger seems to be everywhere — from the federal police, from the AFI (Mexican’s Federal Investigators), from paramilitaries (who may be police in civilian clothes, or PRI party supporters), from the outspoken PRI party supporters. The PRI-istas have a radio station, and they have broadcasted the addresses of movement supporters, most likely to guide their night-time squads. As we sit here, we hear occasional gunshots in the distance.

And tonight there is word that the university attack is again imminent. One US friend who was there was told directly to leave, because it would be too dangerous. This is in direct contrast to other nights, when the barricadistas wanted us to stay.

It is almost impossible for me to hear the Radio Universidad over the internet. The interference is too strong.

In this time, while trying to listen to the radio, I would like to share some of my experiences at the Radio Universidad encampment. And if there are any urgent updates from the radio, as far as I can hear, I will, of course, mention them.

My dear, dear friends at the Radio Universidad. Although I have only known them for 2 weeks, they are in my heart. Quite honestly, I feel unworthy of their esteem and affection. When I saw them on the street late on the night of November 25, after hours of street battlees, they called out “Doctora Elena! Como estas? Donde has estado? Venga con nosotros a la universidad!” (Doctor Elena! How are you? Where have you been? Come with us to the university!).

I wonder, why do they want to fight? For an ideal? A political or social vision? The image of themselves as revolutionaries? For the valor? For the battle scars and stories they could share with friends in the future, if they survive? Because in this society they have nothing else to live for? (reminds me of young people in poor neighborhoods of the US who chose to sell drugs or join gangs because they see no other viable alternative, and because they see no other positive future) Impossible to know, of course, though I suspect in many it is a messy mix of these, and other factors.

While at Radio Universidad I talked a lot with a man I will call Che, who seemed to be one of the most reliable and responsible of the barricadistas there. He is also a self-styled revolutionary fighter. He is enormously charismatic, dependable and a bit crazy. He states, unequivocally, that he is willing to die for this struggle. Is it worth it? Can I stand to see his vibrant, powerful life snuffed out for this struggle? And who the hell am I to ask? He knows what may come, and he continues to organize, and to fight.

I have worked a lot with Che. If you ask him to get something done, from my experience, it gets done. One day one of the first aid station workers asked him to bring more water, because the first aid station was almost out of drinkable water. None appeared for a long time, and I thought he had forgotten. But it turned out there was no drinkable water in the Radio Universidad compound. Che told people at the first aid station, “As soon as there is water, I will bring you some.” They made a call over the Radio for more water from the community, and a bit later there were 10+ large (5 gallon) bottles, and many smaller bottles filled with filtered water. A bit later Che appeared, carrying a 80 pound bottle of water on his shoulder, and within hours there were many more gallons of water at the first aid station.

Che is a complicated mix of self-promotion and genuine commitment. He loves to have photos taken of him, in a face mask, with a bazooka, in front of the graffiti saying “Hasta la victoria siempre” upon his insistence. He wears all black, with a bullet proof vest at times. He strides around the encampment, checking in with different people, and talking about the most recent developments. He seems to have the genuine respect of the other barricadistas at Radio Universidad. How much of this is cult of personality, and how essential is charisma to revolutionary “leaders” (because I think he would disavow the label of leader, if asked)?

I write at length about Che, because he is one of the most obvious organizers at the Radio.

It is impossible not to feel utterly trite and overly romantic about the people in this movement. We tend to romanticize revolutionary workers. But there is some truth in this hyperbole. Many people in the Oaxaca movement have moved beyond their own day-to-day concerns, and fight tirelessly for a greater cause.

La Doctora Berta, for example. She is a grand personality, with one part absolute commitment, one part political insight, one part calm determination, one part intense focus on the struggle at hand, and one part self-abnegation and humor. She has worked tirelessly for this movement, continuing to attend strategy meetings and negotiations, announce in her calm and witty style over the radio, and attend to patients in the first aid station, despite total exhaustion, sickness (a very bad cough after being tear-gassed in the ambulance during the march on November 20, “But it cured my sinusitis!” she said.) and threats to burn her house and kill her and her family.

One day, while I was in the first aid station and she was resting after becoming quite sick from the tear gas. I had just begged her to take more time to rest, to take care of herself. We were listening to the radio. “What are they doing, playing music?” she said. “We must talk about the situation. We must rally the people.” and she jumped from her bed, and went to the radio, to announce for the next hour.

She can also be quite severe, and as a result has alienated some of the barricadistas at the Radio Universidad. How much of her intensity and, at times, authoritarianism, is a result of 6 months of fighting, and how much intrinsic to her personality? I will never know, because I am only here now. But she is one of the absolute essential elements of this movement. She calls the people, and they respond. She is calm in the face of crisis, and helps all of us face whatever is coming (and I must mention that I face literally no danger or repression in comparison to Oaxacan and Mexican citizens) with “a burning heart and a cold mind.”

Right now the radio continues to transmit. We just heard what sounds like a tear gas explosion in the distance.

For now, I will sign off. Please keep the people of Oaxaca, and all those struggling for justice, in your hearts.

source: http://www.oaxacarevolt.org/index.php?sec=article&id=70〈=eng

OAXACA: 150 arrested, dozens injured, by John Gibler

OAXACA CITY

A shaken city took stock of its burned out center on Sunday, a day after an intense clash between demonstrators and federal police more than a hundred arrested and at least dozens injured.

In the morning, city workers were busy painting over protesters´ graffiti and sweeping up broken glass in the colonial center. Three bulldozers were brought in to scoop up all the rocks thrown by protesters.

At the charred remains of the state court building in Oaxaca City, only the statue of former president and state hero Benito Juárez remained standing, framed in smoke and sharp blades of sunlight that cut through the burned out roof.

"Only Juárez is still standing," commented one woman who stood with her two daughters looking through the window, "It´s as if he is saying, ´We are still here, and we aren´t going away.´"

The court building was one of 34 that were damaged by fires started during the clash, according to government news agency Notimex, which also reported that 20 vehicles were burned. The Camino Real and three other hotels, as well as the Teatro Juárez, also had fire damage.

Local press reported that around 50 people were injured in the conflict, while demonstrators said more than 100 were hurt.

Meanwhile, bewildered residents toured the destruction, snapping photographs of burned buildings and broken windows.

"Those people are vandals, the real people of Oaxaca are against this," said one woman standing in the scorched doorway of the state court building. She was referring to the Oaxaca People´s Assembly (APPO), which has directed months of protests against state Gov. Ulises Ruiz, who is accused of fraud, corruption and repression.

Most businesses remained closed on Sunday.

Saturday´s five-hour confrontation began after protesters attempted to encircle the federal police in the city´s main square.

Most of the fighting took place Saturday night on Alcalá Avenue, which leads from the central Zócalo square to the Santo Domingo Cathedral, where the APPO had camped out in recent weeks.

After police forced protesters up Alcalá and out of the city´s center, state and federal police trucks surrounded the protesters. Witnesses said that the police beat and detained dozens. Soon afterwards, gunshots could be heard across town.

State police later used helicopters to transport around 150 people to state prisons outside the city. Family members and representatives of local human rights organizations said they were denied access to the detained.

On Sunday morning, dozens of protesters were hiding out in nearby houses as state and federal police patrolled the city in caravans of cars and trucks.

It was the first time since June 14 that uniformed local and state police officers patrolled the city.

Just before noon, several hundred Ruiz supporters marched through the city center, calling for the arrests of APPO members. Soon afterwards Ruiz briefly toured the Santo Domingo area and spoke to members of the press, saying the demonstrators would be prosecuted for the damage. Two police helicopters flew overhead during his tour.

Meanwhile, at hospitals across the city, family members began looking for missing relatives. Witnesses who asked not to be named said that plainclothes police swept the hospitals the night before. They reported armed men came and went throughout the night looking for wounded APPO members.

Felipe Gama, director of the Dr. Manuel Velasco Suárez Hospital, said that seven armed men with pistols forced their way into his hospital, threatening nurses and hospital employees. He denied, however, that they had taken any patients with them.

On Sunday afternoon, APPO council members met in a closed session to discuss the previous night´s battle and their next steps. They released a document restating demands that Ruiz step down and the federal police withdraw.

"We are reaffirming here that only after the fall of the tyrant Ulises Ruiz will peace and governability return to Oaxaca," said spokesperson Florentino López.

The APPO denounced the burning of buildings and private businesses the night before, but upheld the APPO´s "legitimate right to self-defense to avoid a massacre," referring to the use of rocks, Molotov cocktails and bottle rockets to fight the police.

Oaxaca, Mexico: APPO explains reasons for yesterday's battle; You're really not going to believe this.

APPO spokesman Florentino López Martínez, as yet un-disappeared,

"emphasized that the violence that occurred yesterday when APPO tried to surround the PFP was the product of an offensive against the federal forces as part of a defense of the members and sympathizers of APPO."

After laughter had died down a bit, López had everyone roaring with this one:

Appo used only legitimate force in their own defense using rocks, clubs, rockets, gasoline bombs and other objects they found along the way.

Well, I can always step just outside my door and find a grocery cart full of Molotov cocktails, stumble over ball bats and clubs and I have to be careful where I toss my cigar butts to avoid setting off the casual nail-filled rocket or bomb I find lying hither and yon.

López Martínez also vowed that APPO "would not take one step back" in its fight against Governor Ruiz Ortiz. Well, he's right about that. APPO did not take one step back yesterday, they ran back about 2 miles.

For his part, Flavio "Fat Man" Sosa, in a telephone interview because he's afraid to show his fat ass on the streets, insisted that his innocents were attacked by the PFP and that none of his people were involved in any way with any arson or destruction of property.

A reporter said in a radio interview today that he thinks he witnessed the incident that touched off the street war. He was watching a group of APPO thugs standing some 150 feet away from the PFP line at the green dumpster on Macedonio Alcalá taunting the officers. A masked punk pushing a stolen shopping cart filled with soft drink bottles - the reporter said he could not tell what they were filled with -- decided to show off to his comrades. He pushed the cart down the street right to the PFP line and then turned and continued pushing it all along the line.

The astonished PFP officers looked at one another, then two of them just reached out and snagged the punk as well as his shopping cart. They jerked him through their line and, poof! just like that he was gone. When the laughing mob saw their smart-ass comrade disappear right before their eyes, they went berserk and the fight was on.

Cool.
*
[& This from the MSM...BULLSHIT rom Ruiz]
Governor claims win after clash in Mexico's Oaxaca

Reuters
Sunday, November 26, 2006; 5:04 PM

OAXACA, Mexico (Reuters) - The governor of Mexico's troubled Oaxaca
state claimed victory in a six-month conflict on Sunday, after riot
police fired tear gas and arrested scores of protesters trying to force
him from office the day before.

Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz, protected by dozens of police, strolled quiet
downtown streets where hundreds of activists threw gasoline bombs
and rocks at phalanxes of cops in body armor on Saturday.

The city, normally popular with European backpackers, has been in
chaos for the last six months because of protests by striking
teachers, Indian groups and leftists against the governor, who they
say is corrupt and authoritarian.

-snip-

Federal officials said they had arrested more than 150 people on
Saturday, when hundreds of activists, some armed with homemade
wooden shields and fireworks, tried to surround federal police
occupying the city's central square.

Offensive by the Federal Preventive Police Against the People of Oaxaca

by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO)
The Other Oaxaca
Nov 25

A large number of people are reported detained in various parts of the city. Two deaths are the result of the confrontation. (as of 9:33)

The federal police began, around 5pm, to attack the members of the APPO that were peacefully demonstration in the areas around the zocalo. These aggressions caused the conflict that is still continuing between the police and the members of the APPO and its supporters.

The streets of the historic center area battle ground and the federal police began to discharge fire arms against the protesters about an hour ago. The ministerial police of the state of Oaxaca and the federal preventative forces are investigating in order to apprehend in some part of the city, such as in el Llano, Crespo street and the market Central de Abastos as well as in other parts.

Approximately 40 people are reported detained, 20 of them women. There are various injured people, one of whom is gravely hurt.

Up until now we have the information that two compañeros have lost their lives due to the aggressions, although their identities have not been confirmed.

At the moment the offices of exterior relations (immigration) that are located in Pino Suarez and the offices of the police that are located in Juarez Avenue are on fire.

The Federal Preventive Police together with the state police have unleashed an offensive against the social movement of Oaxaca. The confrontations have arrived to the area around ADO (a bus station) and the hospital IMSS which is located in the street Ninos Heroes.

The APPO has information that because of these recent events the Mexican Army is in Maximum Alert.

Santo Domingo, headquarters of the APPO’s planton (camps in the city’s center) has been removed by the federal police after being taken over by them.

Faced with this offensive against the people and in order to avoid more bloodshed the APPO has decided to retreat.

We demand the punishment of Felipe Calderón, Vicente Fox, Ulises Ruiz for this massacre that is being carried out against the people of Oaxaca.

We call to all of the peoples of Mexico and of the World to carry out mobilizations demanding that this aggression ends.

Punish the murders
Freedom to political prisoners
Long live the heroic people of Oaxaca

APPO

Clarification by the CCRI-CG of the EZLN and the Sixth Commission About Recent Events in the State of Chiapas

by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
Sixth Commission

The Attacked in Montes Azules “Are Not Zapatista Bases of Support”

November 25, 2006

To the adherents of the Sixth Declaration and the Other Campaign:
To the visitors of this web page:

Compañeras y compañeros:

Greetings. According to what has been reported by our compañero administrators of the Enlace Zapatista page, there have been some commentaries showing unease over the EZLN’s silence regarding the confrontation among indigenous, in recent days, in Viejo Velasco, Chiapas, Mexico, where supposedly Zapatista bases of support had been assassinated. Some ask what happened and others try to attack us and discredit us. For those who question with sincere concern, we make a small clarification here. To the others we say “whatever,” they will have to keep looking for real arguments in order to speak ill of us. Oh well.

First: The indigenous in the confrontation, the dead and wounded WERE NOT EZLN SUPPORT BASES NOR DO THEY BELONG TO ANY ZAPATISTA CIVILIAN OR MILITARY SUPPORT STRUCTURE. When someone from the EZLN is attacked, the EZLN says so clearly and assigns with certainty the blame and cause of the aggression.

Second: They are tendentious journalistic reports and they come from other organizations THAT ARE NOT ZAPATISTAS, or that are anti-Zapatista, those that insist LYING that this is about EZLN support bases. On the same day as the lamentable events occurred, the Sixth Commission with the CCRI (Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee) confirmed that they were not Zapatista compass. Some hours later this was clarified for La Jornada’s special correspondent on the tour of the Sixth Commission in the North of Mexico.

We remained silent because we don’t speak for anyone other than our own dead, at least if we are not asked to speak for other groups, organizations, collectives or families.

Third: Since their foundation, the caracoles and Good Government Councils are the places where one can obtain direct, trustworthy and true information about what happens with our compañeros and compañeras. At times due to sloth, at times with malice (news about the death of an indigenous Zapatista “sells” better than that about one that isn’t), they don’t go to ask questions at the place where the true answer exists. In this case, it would suffice to go to the Good Government Council in the caracol (autonomous municipal seat) of La Garrucha, to be informed as to whether this story is about Zapatista support bases or not.

Fourth: Supposedly the organization Xinich, according to declarations reported by the La Jornada correspondent in Chiapas, said that this story was about EZLN bases of support and not about Xinich. But if there is something that Xinich does not know it is the matter of who is and who is not a Zapatista. We don’t understand why Xinich purports to represent something that it doesn’t even have a distant relationship with.

Fifth: It is common and frequent in Chiapas that groups and organizations call themselves EZLN support bases (without being so) in order to obtain some cover or benefit. We don’t contradict them if there is not an explicit reason to do so. When someone is attacked, and claims to be a Zapatista, although he is not, we don’t contradict him so as not to put him further at risk. That is what has occurred with some towns in Montes Azules. If we now clarify this, it is because of the lies that Xinich and La Jornada spread which have served to plant confusion among some sympathizers and for the malicious ones that slander us.

That is all.

Revolutionary Indigenous Clandestine Committee – General Command of the EZLN
Sixth Commission of the EZLN
Mexico, November of 2006

President Morales escaped aggression from Bolivian students

LA PAZ, Bolivia

Bolivian president Evo Morales, escaped yesterday from public university students aggression in the rebellious tropical province of Santa Cruz.

The event was registered around 18:00 hours local time (22:00 GMT) and was transmitted by television channel ATB, that showed the presidential caravan under harassment of a stone rain thrown by Santa Cruz college students.

The president had gone to the Gabriel René Brown University to sign an agreement with its director, he interrupted his speech after being notified by his security agents of impending threat from a manifestation that was brewing outside the building.

Immediately, Morales left and boarded his vehicle, which took hits of several projectiles, stones and pieces of bricks thrown by students, who question his work in government.

In the escape, television registered the moment when one of the security agents had to use his body to shield the president from flying projectiles.

Tonight (Sunday) attack at the University??

Greetings everyone,

I just left the university area, where all afternoon there have been rumors that the police had been gathering around the area and would be attacking probably at night.

These are rumors, and I will clearly indicate what I know for sure:
- They have arrest warrants for people at Radio Universidad (exactly who, I don't know)
- The people guarding Radio Universidad will fight to protect the radio, and they are preparing for a battle with molotovs, rockets, rocks. As far as I know they do not have any guns.
- According to some reports, people from the the Agencia Federal de Investigaciones (AFI) were coming to Oaxaca to be involved in the arrest of people at the Radio. I have heard that AFI is less accountable and more corrupt in their actions.
- The press conference planned for the Cinco Senores barricade was moved to the Radio Universidad area because of safety concerns (this is for sure)
- As we left Radio Universidad, just as darkness fell, we heard that the police had arrived at Cinco Senores.
- A friend in a taxi saw multiple pickup trucks filled with PFPs 2 blocks from the Cinco Senores barricade, heading in that direction.
- APPO is planning events for tomorrow, the details of which I do not know.

So, tonight there will probably be more fighting, though it seems like one never knows what will actually happen. As one of the folks at Radio Universidad said to me "In the life of politics, one day can be very long."

Take care all,
Eowyn

Ecuador's Correa claims victory

Ecuador's presidential candidate Rafael Correa has claimed victory in Sunday's run-off election.

Rafael Correa has a commanding lead in unofficial exit polls

Three exit polls and an unofficial quick count indicated Mr Correa had gained around 57% of the vote while Alvaro Noboa polled about 43%.

Mr Noboa has said he won the election and if necessary will ask for a recount after official results are announced.

International observers had urged both candidates to be cautious in claiming victory before results were official.

We accept this victory with dignity and humility... We are just instruments of the power of the people Rafael Correa

Ecuador has seen much political turmoil in recent years with seven presidents in the last decade.

The last three elected presidents were overthrown and only three since 1979 have succeeded in serving full terms.

Policy announcements

"Thank God, we have triumphed," Mr Correa told supporters in the capital Quito.

"We accept this victory with dignity and humility... We are just instruments of the power of the people."

Although the official result has not yet been announced, Mr Correa has moved quickly to make policy announcements and appoint ministers.

He said he will try to rejoin the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) which Ecuador left in 1992.

He also named leftist economists Ricardo Patino and Alberto Acosta as his economy and energy ministers, Reuters news agency said.

His rival Alvaro Noboa rejected the exit polls and said he would wait until official results were announced before asking for a recount if necessary.

Alvaro Noboa has said he will ask for a recount if necessary

Before voting, he had gone down on his knees, Bible in hand, and asked God for support.

"Like Christ, all I want is to serve... so that the poor can have housing, health care, education, jobs," Associated Press news agency quoted him as saying.

The billionaire banana tycoon, Ecuador's richest man, had campaigned promising to attract foreign investment to Ecuador. He frequently carried a Bible.

He had said he would build 300,000 new homes a year for Ecuador's poor.

Foreign debt promises

An economic aide to Mr Correa said he would not pay some of Ecuador's "illegitimate" foreign debt and would not sign a free trade agreement with the United States, Reuters said.

While campaigning, Mr Correa said he wanted to renegotiate contracts with foreign oil companies.

Mr Correa is close to Venezuela's anti-American President Hugo Chavez and has called US President George W Bush a "dimwit".

He toned down his comparison to Mr Chavez after he lost the first round vote to Mr Noboa.

Both candidates had promised to create jobs and fight poverty and corruption. Both had also promised to double the monthly government payout poor Ecuadorians receive.

Offensive by the Federal Preventive Police Against the People of Oaxaca

By the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO)
The Other Oaxaca
Nov 25

Confrontation Continues Between the Police and the APPO in Different Parts of the City

A large number of people are reported detained in various parts of the city. Two deaths are the result of the confrontation. (as of 9:33)

The federal police began, around 5pm, to attack the members of the APPO that were peacefully demonstration in the areas around the zocalo. These aggressions caused the conflict that is still continuing between the police and the members of the APPO and its supporters.

The streets of the historic center area battle ground and the federal police began to discharge fire arms against the protesters about an hour ago. The ministerial police of the state of Oaxaca and the federal preventative forces are investigating in order to apprehend in some part of the city, such as in el Llano, Crespo street and the market Central de Abastos as well as in other parts.

Approximately 40 people are reported detained, 20 of them women. There are various injured people, one of whom is gravely hurt.

Up until now we have the information that two compañeros have lost their lives due to the aggressions, although their identities have not been confirmed.

At the moment the offices of exterior relations (immigration) that are located in Pino Suarez and the offices of the police that are located in Juarez Avenue are on fire.

The Federal Preventive Police together with the state police have unleashed an offensive against the social movement of Oaxaca. The confrontations have arrived to the area around ADO (a bus station) and the hospital IMSS which is located in the street Ninos Heroes.

The APPO has information that because of these recent events the Mexican Army is in Maximum Alert.

Santo Domingo, headquarters of the APPO’s planton (camps in the city’s center) has been removed by the federal police after being taken over by them.

Faced with this offensive against the people and in order to avoid more bloodshed the APPO has decided to retreat.

We demand the punishment of Felipe Calderón, Vicente Fox, Ulises Ruiz for this massacre that is being carried out against the people of Oaxaca.

We call to all of the peoples of Mexico and of the World to carry out mobilizations demanding that this aggression ends.

Punish the murders
Freedom to political prisoners
Long live the heroic people of Oaxaca

APPO

Huge rally for Chávez opponent

Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Caracas yesterday to back opposition presidential candidate Manuel Rosales as he closed his campaign against President Hugo Chávez, who is favoured to win the December 3 vote.

Shouts of ‘‘Dare to change!’’ arose from the crowd that filled the highway, nearby overpasses and streets. Rosales promised democracy for a country that he said is sinking into Cuba-style authoritarianism under Chávez.

‘‘I don’t want to be a president who controls all the branches of government,’’ Rosales shouted to thundering applause. ‘‘Let there be true democracy in Venezuela!’’

He blasted government officials for prohibiting television crews from using helicopters to film the march from the air, saying ‘‘they don’t want the people to see this multitude.’’

A dense crowed spilled for several kilometres along a broad highway beyond the major intersection where Rosales spoke. Some journalists estimated the crowd at roughly 800,000, but there were no official estimates.

Rosales — a state governor who favours free markets over Chávez’s brand of socialism — trailed Chávez by a wide margin in an AP-Ipsos poll conducted earlier this month. Some polls show Chávez ahead by up to 32 points. But Rosales said the vast crowd yesterday was proof he would defeat Chávez. ‘‘It’s Caracas in the streets,’’ he said. ‘‘A great avalanche of votes!’’

Marchers departed from various points in the city of 5 million and converged on the Francisco Fajardo Highway, where they danced to Venezuelan folk music booming from loudspeakers and chanted anti-Chávez slogans.

More than 3,000 police were deployed along the march route to prevent clashes between Rosales supporters and pro-Chávez partisans who gathered on several street corners shouting ‘‘Viva Chávez!’’ as marchers passed. There were no reports of violence.

Rosales lashed out at what Chávez calls his plan for ‘‘21st century socialism,’’ saying it’s nothing more than a plan to be ‘‘president all his life, until he dies like Fidel Castro — indefinite re-election.’’

‘‘It’s Castro communism, the Cubanization of Venezuela,’’ Rosales said. ‘‘This country doesn’t want that. It wants modernity.’’

Chávez, who was first elected in 1998, has said he wants to continue governing Venezuela until 2021 or longer. He said he plans to call a referendum to ask Venezuelans whether they support changing the constitution to allow indefinite re-election. It currently allows two consecutive presidential terms.

Rosales, who temporarily stepped down as governor of the western state of Zulia to run for president, is one of the few opposition politicians to hold on to office as Chávez’s allies have gained solid control of the National Assembly, state offices and the courts.

Pinochet "I assume the political responsibility "

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet celebrated his 91st birthday yesterday with a mea culpa, taking “political responsibility” for acts committed following his 1973 military coup.

In a letter read by his wife, Lucía Hiriart, from the doorstep of his upscale Santiago home, Pinochet said loyalty to his country had motivated all his actions.

“I assume the political responsibility for all of the works carried out with no other motive than to make Chile a great place and prevent its disintegration,” he said in the letter.

Pinochet, who has not spoken publicly in a long time, had previously blamed what he called ‘‘excesses’’ on subordinates. Yesterday, he did not specify what he had known about, authorized or ordered.

Pinochet did not accompany his wife to the porch of his home while she read the letter, but could be seen behind her. Later, he stood from a chair just inside the house to wave to a band of mariachi musicians who came to serenade him with his favourite song, the Mexican ballad El Rey (The King).

“Today, close to the end of my days, I want to make clear that I hold no rancour toward anybody, that I love my country above all else,” Pinochet said in the letter.

Pinochet said in the statement that the military was forced to act against Allende’s government because the social and political convulsions at the time were threatening the country.

In a clear reference to the scores of trials of military officers for the human rights abuses, Pinochet sent ‘‘a message of support to my comrades in arms, many of whom are imprisoned, suffering persecution and revenge.’’
‘‘It’s not fair to demand punishment for those who prevented the continuation and worsening of the worst political and economic crisis than one can remember,’’ the statement added.
‘‘I repeat: I assume full political responsibility for what happened.’’

The legal noose is tightening around Pinochet and recently he was under house arrest briefly for crimes including torture, murder and kidnapping during his regime.

Around 3,000 people were killed or “disappeared” during the former general’s rule and some 28,000 were tortured after he overthrew Marxist president Salvador Allende and came to power. Thousands of Chileans left the country and went into exile.

Most recently an appeals court stripped Pinochet of immunity — a privilege of former presidents — to face charges relating to the kidnap and disappearance of a Spanish priest in 1974 who was arrested by agents of Chile’s DINA, the dictatorship’s most oppressive police unit.

Pinochet defended the coup and the military regime yesterday, saying it left ‘‘a vigorous, modern, admired country.’’

‘‘I am absolutely certain that tomorrow, once the political passions and resentments are ended, history will judge our work objectively and will recognize that we put Chile on top of the nations in our continent.’’

Marcos: “We Are On the Eve of Either a Great Uprising or a Civil War”

By Hermann Bellinghausen
Nov 24

Marcos: “We Are On the Eve of Either a Great Uprising or a Civil War”

Bagdad, Tamaulipas, November 23: December 1, the day that Felipe Calderón takes office, will be “the beginning of the end for a political system that, since the Mexican Revolution, became deformed and began to cheat generation after generation, until this one arrived and said, ‘Enough,’” warned Subcomandante Marcos during a press conference. Calderón, he added, “will begin to fall from his first day.”

He stated, “we are on the eve of either a great uprising or a civil war.” As to the question of who would lead the uprising, he responded, “the people, each one in his or her own place, within a system of mutual support. If we can not succeed in having it happen that way, there will have to be spontaneous uprisings, civil explosions all over, a civil war in which each person is only looking out for his or her own well-being, because the possibility is already there for things to cross that line.” He cited the case of Oaxaca, where “there are no leaders or political bosses; it is the people themselves who have organized. It will be like that across the entire country.”

With respect to the current phase of the Other Campaign, he explained, “after the Zapatistas lifted the veil that was obscuring the reality of indigenous communities in Chiapas, we ventured out to find poverty in the countryside and in the cities, and now we see it on the coast as well. In this country, there is a façade being propped up by the political parties, and recently by Vicente Fox, that says everything is fine.”

In the case of the northern part of the country, he added, it “is chilling” how different reality is from what they say it is: “they say the north supports the PAN, that they love Fox, that everyone lives well. But what we saw was equal to what is happening in the most humble of indigenous communities in the southwest.”

He posited that Oaxaca is “an indicator” of what is happening across the country. “In Nuevo Laredo, they told us that the problem in Tamaulipas is that everyone here is like Ulises Ruiz: the municipal president, the state congress, the governor. There are too many in the mold of Ulises Ruiz and the people are getting tired of it. If there is not a civil and peaceful way out, which is what we propose in the Other Campaign, it will turn into each person finding their own way however they can.”

He continued, “we do not recognize the official president or the legitimate one. What happens at the top does not matter at all to us. What matters is what will arise from below. When we carry out this uprising, we will do away will the entire political class, including those who call themselves the ‘parliamentary leftists.’”

With regard to the violence and power of drug trafficking, he asserted that these provide “another façade,” which affects the northern states more than anything, where the central focus is on security, and not on the situation of poverty that exists. “The conflicts between drug traffickers, or between drug traffickers and security forces, or between drug traffickers and politicians, are overstated, because we know that the politicians are in league with some of the drug cartels. Meanwhile, the fundamental is forgotten; for example, what is happening in Playa Bagdad, Nuevo Laredo or Reynosa, to mention Tamaulipas. These places only make it into the news when there are clashes between groups of criminals, while what is happening to the people who are working and struggling is forgotten.”

Tribe's protest forces oil giant to cave in

Dan Collyns, Iquitos, Peru, November 26, 2006

An Achuar tribesman ... victory over the oil giant after a blockade of Peru's largest oil facility.

By any measure it was a remarkable protest. More than 800 Achuar tribespeople from the borders of Peru and Ecuador, headed by their leaders with their red and yellow feathered headdresses, arrived last month by the boatload in the twilight hours at four oil wells in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.

Their faces streaked with paint and with people carrying hunting shotguns and ceremonial spears, they formed a peaceful blockade of Peru's largest oil plant. They stayed for nearly two weeks, shutting down power to most of the region's oil production, and its road, airport and river access.

It was a desperate attempt by the Achuar to get the Peruvian Government to take notice of their plight. For decades they had been saying that their land had been heavily polluted and their waters poisoned by oil exploration, but they had been consistently ignored.

The ploy worked. The loss of millions of dollars in revenue and about 40,000 barrels of oil per day forced the government and Pluspetrol — Peru's largest oil and gas operator — to concede to most of the Achuar's demands, including re-injecting all the contaminated waste water back into the ground within two years, and building a new hospital with enough money to run a health service for 10 years.

The victory was particularly sweet for the Achuar — who number about 8000 in Peru's vast Amazon region of Loreto — because it was the only time in 36 years of oil exploration and extraction in their area that the state had intervened. Companies have long been given a free rein to flout international environmental laws.

For the Achuar, water is the source of life, but it has become the bringer of death. It has been contaminated with heavy metals through the production waters of oil drilling that are spewed out untreated into the rivers and streams without regard for international standards.

It wasn't until May this year that the Achuar's complaints of contamination were officially vindicated when Peru's health ministry found high concentrations of lead and cadmium in the blood samples of more than 200 of them.

Pluspetrol maintains that levels of the heavy metals in its production waters do not exceed permitted limits.

On the banks of the Corrientes river, the village of San Cristobal exists side-by-side with the Pluspetrol's Block 8, the second-largest oil plant in the country. The community's leader, Chief Alfonso Hualinga Sandy, says animals he used to hunt have been driven away by the pollution, fish are scarce, and the medicinal plants he once gathered are dying.

The Achuar use the river water to bathe in, to wash their clothes, and they mix it with the fermented mash of cassava to make their traditional drink, masato.

Latin America is a major source of oil, not only for the US, but for the world's second largest consumer, China. Peru has already signed away an estimated 43 per cent of its tropical rainforest to oil concessions — around 27 million hectares — in the past five years.
*

More:
WWF helps Peruvian indigenous community stop wetland pollution
22 Oct 2006

Lima, Peru – An agreement between the government of Peru, the Achuar indigenous people and Argentinean oil company Pluspetrol will see contaminated wetlands in the Amazon cleaned up after decades of pollution.

According to the agreement, all production waters generated during petroleum extraction operations in the Abanico de Pastaza wetlands in northern Peru are to be re-injected into the subsoil by July 2008. In addition, a US$13 million integrated health fund is to be created by Pluspetrol for local indigenous groups that have been badly affected by 30 years of contamination. The oil company will also provide training to communities to monitor and guarantee a freshwater supply.

The agreement was pushed through by FECONACO (Organization of the Corrientes River Indigenous Community), with key support from indigenous rights NGO Racimos de Ungurahui, as well as WWF.

“This is a unique achievement,” said Fred Prins, WWF Peru’s Country Representative. “The agreement will allow the three parties to work together towards a solution to clean up the environment.”
...

Indigenous Peoples' Resistance to Economic Globalization: A Celebration of Victories, Rights and Cultures

Hundreds of people from around the world recently gathered in New York for the "Indigenous Peoples' Resistance to Economic Globalization a Celebration of Victories, Rights and Cultures" teach-in put on by the International Forum on Globalization and the Tebtebba Foundation. Today, we'll play some of the speeches from the event:

* Elouise Cobell, a Blackfeet Indian and the plaintiff in the landmark lawsuit Cobell v. Kempthorne. The suit was filed on behalf of 300,000 Native Americans and is the largest class action lawsuit ever filed against the U.S. government.

* Felix Villca, an Aymara Indian and a senior advisor to the Bolivian Foreign Ministry in the government of Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president.

* Sheila Watt-Cloutier, former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council that represents the more than 150,000 Inuit of Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and Russia.

* Mililani Trask, a native Hawaiian attorney.

Listen Here

Bolivia Divided Over Morales' Reforms

LA PAZ, Bolivia

President Evo Morales on Friday proposed shutting down the opposition-controlled Senate, the latest step in a drive to expand his legal powers and push through further populist reforms.

Morales has been emboldened by a series of political triumphs, but Bolivians are divided over his plans to redistribute power and wealth to the country's poor indigenous majority.

The president suggested Bolivia's new constitution should eliminate the Senate, forcefully rebuking conservative senators who have walked out of the chamber in a bid to block his sweeping land reform.

"Those that do not defend the poor or the majority are generally in the Senate," Morales said Friday at a news conference. "Why do we need a Senate where there is still a majority of neo-liberals who will boycott it?"

Six of Bolivia's nine state governors have angrily broken ties with his government. Anti-Morales protesters this week packed the center of Santa Cruz, the country's richest city, to demand greater local autonomy.

Even the owner of Bolivia's Burger King franchises is on a hunger strike to protest the president's handling of the assembly rewriting Bolivia's constitution.

But groups of Indians, landless peasants and coca farmers are marching toward the capital, La Paz, for a mass demonstration next week to support the nation's first Indian president and to demand passage of his land reform bill.

Morales, who finished 25 points ahead of his nearest challenger in last year's presidential election, believes he has a powerful mandate to transform Bolivia and dismisses opposition protests.

Morales has made no secret of his intention to end centuries of dominance by a European-descended elite and redistribute power and wealth.

The president's fortunes were boosted on Oct. 28 when foreign oil companies bowed to his nationalization decree and signed contracts giving the government a majority of their Bolivian revenues.

The signings reversed Morales' sinking poll numbers and even his bitterest rivals acknowledged the contracts were a boon for South America's poorest country.

In recent weeks, his government also has celebrated a U.S. proposal to extend a key trade agreement and the Inter-American Development Bank's decision to forgive hundreds of millions of dollars of Bolivia's foreign debt.

The accumulated political capital is burning a hole in Morales' pocket.

This week, Morales asked Congress to pass a bill giving him power to oust state governors -- two-thirds of whom hail from opposition parties and have been some of his most vocal critics.

Days earlier, delegates from the president's Movement Toward Socialism party, or MAS, voted to give their slim majority complete control of the assembly writing a new Bolivian constitution -- casting aside months of negotiations with conservative delegates.

The party's majority in the lower house of Congress also pushed through Morales' long-stalled land bill, which would allow the government to seize private lands it deems unproductive for redistribution to the landless poor. Conservative lawmakers walked out in protest.

Critics say Morales' actions are all too reminiscent of past Bolivian strong-arm leaders.

"The rhetoric that MAS is bringing a new change is regrettably false," political analyst Enrique Urquidi said. "They're showing the same attitude that governments have had here for 20 years."

It's unclear whether Morales' recent moves will stick.

The final draft of Bolivia's new constitution must still be approved by a two-thirds vote of the assembly, so MAS must eventually include opposition delegates in the process.

Both land reform and the power to fire state governors face a difficult fight in the opposition-controlled Senate.

Morales has said that if senators block land reform, his supporters will use protests and blockades to pressure lawmakers. Marchers on their way to the capital seem ready to oblige.

"To the land speculators and senators who don't want to pass land reform, we say: Here are the people of Bolivia!" Indian leader Pedro Nuni shouted at a rally in Cochabamba, 150 miles southeast of La Paz. "These are the true indigenous brothers and sisters who have always fought for their land, and will continue to fight until the ultimate price."

But on Tuesday in Santa Cruz, 400 miles east of La Paz, anti-Morales demonstrators waved the state's green-and-white flag and declared they would never allow the president to take their land or remove their governor from office.

Some carried banners suggesting they were ready to break away. "Now is the time for independence," one of them read.

US/Colombia trade agreement must face Congress

United States signed Wednesday a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Colombia, which promises to strengthen economic ties between both countries by eliminating tariffs and other barriers to goods and services and expanding trade.

The agreement will offer new opportunities for U.S. "businesses, manufacturers, farmers and ranchers," and provide Colombia with "permanent access to the U.S. market, which will aid in sustaining real growth, creating more jobs and attracting new investment," said John Veroneau, deputy U.S. Trade Representative.

Veroneau signed the agreement on behalf of the United States with Colombian Minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism Jorge Humberto Botero in Washington. The agreement must now face approval by both countries legislatures.

However there are obstacles because members of the U.S. Congress have indicated they would not vote in favor of the pact unless it is rewritten to contain more protections for labor rights and the environment, and because of sensitivities that imports of Colombian sugar might threaten U.S. sugar producers.

US private-sector sources are reported to have said that getting Congress to approve the Colombia FTA would be more difficult than securing approval of a U.S.-Peru trade agreement because Colombia has a history of blocking union organizers.

Both the Colombian and Peruvian FTAs must be acted on by the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees before they can be considered by the full Congress. In the wake of the midterm U.S. elections and the change in political control of Congress in January 2007, incoming Ways and Means Democratic Committee Chairman Charles Rangel has said that he plans to raise worker rights issues when the accords come before his committee.

Hernando José Gomez, Colombia's chief trade negotiator, has said he expects the Colombian congressional approval process to be finished by January 2007, after which Colombia would submit the agreement to its constitutional court for review, according to news reports.

Bilateral trade between Colombia and US reached 14.3 billion US dollars in 2005.

Colombia currently benefits from the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA), which also provides trade preferences to Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. Under that agreement, which is set to expire at the end of 2006, many of Colombia's exports have been allowed to enter the United States duty-free. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said November 14 that it supports an extension of expiring ATPA trade preferences for the four countries.

According to a USTR fact sheet, under the agreement, more than 80 percent of U.S. exports to Colombia -- including high-quality beef, cotton, wheat, soybeans and soy meal, key fruits and vegetables and some processed foods -- immediately would become duty-free, and duties for the remainder of exports would be phased out over 10 years.

The United States and Colombia also have worked to resolve food safety barriers to trade, including procedures for inspections of beef, pork and poultry, USTR said.

Some provisions of the agreement provide for:

• Duty- and quota-free access to both countries' textile markets, provided the products meet the agreement's rules of origin provisions;
• Expanded access for U.S. providers to Colombia's services markets, such as in the financial sector;
• Greater protection in Colombia for intellectual property rights of such U.S. products as computer software, music and videos, and more protection for U.S. patents and trademarks; and
• More public access to Colombian government information about customs requirements.

Documents confirm US involvement in 1964 Brazilian coup

Nov 22

United States encouraged and supported the 1964 military coup in Brazil against elected president Joao Goulart according to documents from the US State Department recently declassified.

In the latest edition of the Globo television program “Fantástico” Carlos Fico a historian and researcher from the Federal University of Rio do Janeiro revealed he had access to US government documents which showed the involvement of US diplomacy at the time in the downfall of the Goulart administration.

One of the documents is titled, “A contingency plan for Brazil” and was drafted with help from then US Ambassador in Brazil Lincoln Gordon. State Department named the operation to oust Goulart in 1964, “Brother Sam”

In messages sent to the White House, Gordon describes the chances that Goulart be ousted in the face of what is described as a potential “Communist intervention” in Brazil with the possible support from Cuba or the Soviet Union.

Ambassador Gordon described opposing forces to president Goulart as “constructive”, who had convinced the Brazilian president “to hand over office” according to what was aired in the Globo program.

Goulart was finally ousted by a military coup on March 31, 1964 opening the way for a dictatorship with five general presidents which lasted until 1985, when constitutional normality was restored under elected president Jose Sarney.

In spite of having military support from the southern garrison, Goulart left office without resisting avoiding bloodshed and died in 1976 during exile in Argentina, apparently suffering from food poisoning.

However in 2003, former ambassador Gordon denied any links with the 1964 coup against Goulart. But other documents link the State Department with the military takeover which the Brazilian generals, --most of them belonging to a generation of officers who fought next to US forces in Italy during the Second World War—described as the “Revolution”.

“This is the first time we are faced with documents which confirm US involvement in the 1964 coup. It’s no delirious imagination from the opposition or from those who suffered persecution under the coup and the military dictatorships that followed. It’s a fact of history”, said Jessie Jane Vieira de Souza head of Rio do Janeiro’s university Philosophy and Social Sciences Institute.

Ms Vieira de Souza and her family had to abandon Brazil and lived in exile fearing for their lives under the military regime that lasted until 1985.

The APPO Grows: The Guelatao Declaration of the Zapoteco, Mixe and Chinanteco Peoples of Oaxaca's Sierra Juárez

by Indigenous Communities, The Other Oaxaca

ASSEMBLY OF THE ZAPOTECO, MIXE AND CHINANTECO PEOPLES OF THE SIERRA JUÁREZ GUELATAO DECLARATION

The municipal and communal authorities, representatives of community and regional organizations, citizen men and women from the communities and municipalites of San Miguel Cajonos, San Francisco Cajonos, Santa Cruz Yagavila, San Baltasar Yatzachi, Villa Hidalgo Yalalag, San Juan Analco, Calpulalpan de Méndez, San Juan Yetzecovi, San Juan Yalahui, San Juan Atepec, San Cristóbal Chichicaxtepec Mixe, San Juan Tabaá, Santa María Yavesía, Ixtlán de Juárez, Tanetze de Zaragoza, Asunción Cacalotepec Mixe, Villa Alta, Macuiltianguis, Ayutla Mixe, Tamazulapan Mixe, San Juan Teponaxtla, San Miguel Tiltepec, Guelatao de Juárez, Santa María Alotepec Mixe, Jaltepec de Candayoc Mixe, Asunción Lachixila, San Mateo Éxodo, Cristo Rey La Selva, Arroyo Macho, Talea de Castro, Santa María Mixistlán Mixe, Chuxnaban Mixe, San Lucas Camotlán Mixe, San Miguel Quetzaltepec Mixe, Totontepec Villa de Morelos, Amatepec Mixe, San Juan Guichicovi Mixe, San Pedro Ocotepec Mixe, Santa Cruz Condoy Mixe, San Isidro Aloapan, Santiago Zoochila and Santa María Tepantlali Mixe belonging to the Zapoteco, Mixe and Chinanteco peoples, met in the municipality of San Pablo Guelatao de Juárez, Oaxaca México; with the goal of analyzing and reflecting on the reality in which our communities are living, and proposing our form of participation in the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca.

WE SAY AND WE DEMAND
...
[Click link to read their Seven Declarations]
...
We declare that starting now we are taking the first step for the consolodation of organizations of the indigenous peoples of the Oaxaca Sierra. At the same time we are contributing to the strengthening of our respective processes of autonomy, reconstruction and development as peoples. This is our path and our better dream.

FOR THE FREE DETERMINATION AND AUTONOMY OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Determined in the community of San Pablo Guelatao de Juárez, Oaxaca, México, November 19, of the year 2006.

APPO Press Release Denouncing Police and PRI

OAXACA CITY, OAXACA. NOVEMBER 21, 2006.

TO THE LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL PRESS
TO THE PEOPLE OF OAXACA, MEXICO, AND THE WORLD

Today, after 184 days of struggle against the tyrant and repressor Ulises Ruíz Ortiz, his paid assassins, paramilitaries and thugs, the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) finds it necessary to denounce the abuses against the people of Oaxaca.

OAXACA CITY, OAXACA. NOVEMBER 21, 2006.

TO THE LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL PRESS
TO THE PEOPLE OF OAXACA, MEXICO, AND THE WORLD

Today, after 184 days of struggle against the tyrant and repressor Ulises Ruíz Ortiz, his paid assassins, paramilitaries and thugs, the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) finds it necessary to denounce the abuses against the people of Oaxaca.

Yesterday, as the APPO was holding a peaceful march to commemorate the 96th anniversary marking the beginning of our revolution, we were provoked by the occupying force of the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) as we passed in front of their contingent, and later again at the corner of Alcalá and Morelos streets. Rocks and marbles were thrown at the members of the APPO participating in the march, provoking a confrontation that lasted nearly 4 hours, leaving a toll of 10 detained and 50 wounded from the APPO, whose names are the following:

Felemón Ortega, José Luis Órnelas were left with a fractured leg and intoxication from the gases, Jesús Alvarado and a foreign woman who were left with wounds on the left side of their ribcage from the impact of a teargas canister, and all of this leaves further proof of the criminal and cowardly acts of the PFP against the people of Oaxaca, and only to protect Ulises Ruíz Ortiz, and to keep him in power.

The APPO condemns this criminal act and the general impunity with which the PFP is acting against the compañeros from various media outlets, assaulting them for merely trying to do their work and trying at all costs to prevent these matters from coming to the public eye. We recognize the bravery and professionalism with which the true reporters are acting by complying with the people.

The actions carried out by Ulises Ruíz's armed groups cannot go unpunished: burning the APPO encampment in order to destroy it, robbing people of their provisions, and burning the clothes of children who are staying in the encampment. It is clear that they came with the intention of assaulting and even assassinating members of the APPO, by coming with heavily armed thugs and paramilitaries, and fortunately, thanks to an anonymous tip passed along to the APPO, we had already asked the compañeros to retire from the encampment.

Finally, we want to recognize the support that was brought by members of the Union 3 de Marzo del Municipio de Oaxaca that came to the encampment to clean up the garbage and materials burnt by URO's paid assassins, something that speaks highly of the Democratic Unions.

ATTENTIVELY
APPO PRESS COMMITTEE
ALL THE POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Hell Is Rising in Oaxaca: An Interview with an Oaxacan Rebel

by Ron Jacobs

When I lived in Washington state, some of my closest friends were from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. I have kept in touch with a few of them, and they have kept me in touch with the rebellion unfolding in the streets of Oaxaca over the past few months. After the escalation of the situation there on October 27, 2006, when paramilitary forces shot and killed four people (including Indymedia journalist Brad Will), I spoke with my friends David Abeles and Hilaria Cruz who helped me contact some of their people in Oaxaca city. Given the circumstances currently existing in the area and the uncertainty of the immediate future because of the military and police presence there, I felt that the best way to get firsthand information out to the wider world would be to conduct an email interview. The first interview is below. I hope to have another one ready in the next couple days.

Ron: Hey Tomas. Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions. Would you be willing to introduce yourself?

Tomas: Hi, I would like to salute all the readers of this electronic journal. My name is Tomas Cruz, I am a native from a community in Oaxaca in the highlands. I was forced by the economic situation to migrate to the States. Fortunately I gained an education at the Evergreen State College. I also went to the University of Texas at Austin for a graduate degree in Latin American studies.

Ron: So, you've been in Oaxaca during the entire uprising? Can you tell us the sequence of events as you see them up to now?

Tomas: I have been involved in diverse NGOs working for the communities in Oaxaca up until the time of the Oaxacan uprising.

What we are seeing in Oaxaca is a breakdown of political system that is completely corrupt and deliberately abuses its citizens at will, using the legitimacy of the state to impose a government that only uses power to advance a personal agenda and that of a very small political oligarchy. Since the start of the present government, it was characterized by repression of political leaders, immediately killing them and imposing its repressive mode of government.

The result of the events which are occurring as we speak began with an annual demonstration by the teachers' syndicate. In the 14th of June, the state police attacked the teachers who were at the zocalo for the demonstration.

The response from the citizenry was immediate -- hundreds of people joined the teachers strike and saw an opportunity to stop the continued abuses from the government.

I can only describe what is occurring as catharsis of the population, especially of the immense poor population of the city.

After the attack by the state and the immense response from the population, the most remarkable event in the politics of the movement has been the formation of a popular assembly of the pueblos of Oaxaca, also known as APPO.

The APPO organizations have been capable of resisting all the attacks from the state government, from spots attacking the protesters as a bunch of radicals to the death squads sent to kill people who were protesting at night.

The response of the APPO was to develop barricades to stop the death squads. This resulted in a historic, animated political culture, with also a strong popular support.

Recently, the violence escalated when the international reporter died at the hands of the mercenaries paid by the governor.

Yesterday, there was an intervention by the federal police after the multiple deaths and probably also after the international pressure following the death of the international reporter. The federal police killed at least 4 people and raped one woman during the intervention. The response of the APPO is to maintain the protest until the governor resigns and the political system is reformed.

Ron: What groups were involved that you know of? Also, I imagine that many people were unaffiliated. What were their reasons for joining, in your estimate?

Tomas: This movement is composed of the poorest section of the population. Old housewives who think of this as a parallel to the revolution of 1910 and are ready to resist for years, beggars who are tired of the abuses by the police or simply sympathize with the movement because they see no hope and future in their lives. Mechanics, civil servants, citizens from the neighboring neighborhoods who have had their municipal presidents imposed on them. Citizens from the poorest sections of the city.

Ron: From my understanding, PRI and its allies were responsible for the shootings that killed several people on October 27th. Is PRI the only party responsible for the situation in Oaxaca or are other political parties also responsible?

Tomas: No, the PRI is seeing its last days, and it has resorted to the only thing that it knows, violence.

Ron: You're in Oaxaca right now. What the hell is going on?

Tomas: Hell is rising in Oaxaca, the force of the government against teachers, students, housewives, mechanics, peasants. The whole city and the whole state is filled with federal police, local police, military.

Ron: How are the spirits of those in the rebellion? Where do they get their food and water?

Tomas: There is ample popular support for this uprising which results in a steady flow of donations from communities and lay citizens who donate at different points. Mainly this has been coordinated by using radio stations. At this point, there is one station left, which is being broadcast through the internet at www.indymedia.org -- you (those of you who can speak Spanish) can listen to what is going on as we speak.

The radio broadcasters who have little experience but a huge heart respond to the needs of the people on the barricades. Yesterday, for example, they organized the installation of medical aid stations because the Red Cross got instructions from the governor and its director not to attend to the flurry of people who were shot at by the governor's police.

Ron: Do you think there is a potential for armed conflict (beyond that seen already -- which seems mostly to originate from the forces of the state)?

Tomas: Hmm, if the state continues on its support of a political figure who has lost completely popular support, especially from the poor, then we will see an escalation of violence. because the demands of the people after decades -- some argue centuries -- have been unattended. Honestly, I think that this would continue as peaceful opposition, and hopefully we would see a more democratic state. Only if the government continues its escalation of violence would we see a critical cyclical point in Mexico's history.

Ron: If the federal forces are able to quash the rebellion, what kind of repression do you think will follow? Indeed, based on past experiences, after the media leaves the region, what do you foresee happening to the movement, its participants and supporters, and the region in general?

Tomas: I think that the violence is going to be targeted at the organizers and the leaders of the movement.

Ron: In the greater scheme of things, how would you relate this to other struggles occurring in the Americas? What relationship, if any, do you see the demands of the protestors have to the anti-imperialist/anti-global capitalism movements in this hemisphere and around the world?

Tomas: This rebellion reminds me of Bolivia, because of it indigenous component. As in Bolivia, once the indigenous population decide that a government needs to be overturned, we see that they gain a determination that has caused it to fall. In the case of Oaxaca, the most likely scenario is that the governor is going to be overthrown. What we are seeing also is a political scenario that changes everyday. The news today is that the political parties at the national level are all calling for the governor to resign.

If the movement maintains the level and determination that we are seeing, then this movement has a chance of playing an important role in national politics and possibly a shift in the neoliberal government of Mexico.

Ron: Anything more to add?

Tomas: I was at the scene five minutes before the reporter from Indymedia was killed. I remember hearing the shots, people running all over the place, unarmed mechanics, housewives. There was a woman there, I do not know if she was a teacher, I only remember her words, "This is our moment, we cant go on living like this, it is enough. I went to school barefoot, and it makes me cry to see what happens here. Our only future is the border with the United States. It makes me sad to see our young finish a university degree only to work as taxi drivers. This is our moment, we can't let them continue to oppress us."
*
Ron Jacobs is author of The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground, just republished by Verso. Jacobs' essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch's new collection on music, art and sex: Serpents in the Garden.

APPO supporters endure torture

By John Gibler/Special to The Herald Mexico
El Universal
Lunes 20 de noviembre de 2006

Rene Trujillo Martínez, a thin 25-year-old lawyer and volunteer radio announcer with the Oaxaca People´s Assembly (APPO), holds the uncomfortable distinction of having survived a disappearance.

Trujillo was recently abducted from his apartment by armed men in civilian clothes, brutally beaten at gunpoint, taken to a safe house and tortured. He says he was then held incommunicado for two days while being interrogated by federal authorities, and then, miraculously, released on bail.

According to APPO spokespeople and the Mexican League for Human Rights Defense in Oaxaca, at least 30 APPO protesters are currently missing, awaiting a similar miracle.

"Usually the disappearances are not so massive as they are now, 30 in just a few days," said Florentino López, a spokesperson for the APPO, referring to the number of protesters who have allegedly been abducted or gone missing in the past two weeks since the arrival of federal police in Oaxaca.

"Like torture, disappearances are a part of state terrorism against social movements," he said.

Federal and state authorities denied interview requests for this article.

ABDUCTION

On Nov. 7, at about 2:15 p.m., Trujillo and two friends got out of a taxi and began walking up Santo Tomás, the narrow, hilly side street that leads to Trujillo´s rented room. They noticed a group of men following them and began to run. The men also broke into a sprint, catching up to Trujillo and his friends just as they were closing the garage door.

The men, at least six of them according to several eye-witness accounts, forced their way into the garage with pistols in hand, firing and then beating the three young men, forcing them out into the street.

"I don´t know if they were waiting for him or following him, but they came in with pistols and everything," said one witness (all witnesses interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity). "They were dressed in civilian clothes. They came in hitting him; they pulled him out violently. They didn´t even talk; it was pure violence."

Trujillo and his two friends, Mauricio Marmolejo and Benito Pereda Fernández, were each held down and beaten in the street by two men. But it was Trujillo they were after, and Trujillo who received the most intense beating: after being struck repeatedly in the face with the barrel of a pistol, Trujillo´s assailant stuck his gun into Trujillo´s mouth while slamming his head against the wall.

Days later Trujillo´s blood was still visible on the rocks outside his house.

RADIO ANNOUNCER

Trujillo participated in the June 14 takeover of Radio Universidad and volunteered around the station until a paid saboteur threw acid on the transmitter and the station went off the air. But Trujillo hung around, helping maintain the barricade protecting the university station. He then began as a program announcer on Oct. 21 when the radio went back on the air with a repaired transmitter.

Trujillo ran the 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. program, known as Barricade Radio, providing information about police movements around town and barricades that needed reinforcement.

APPO protesters began to build hundreds of barricades throughout Oaxaca City after gunmen linked to local police opened fire on their protest camps on Aug. 22, killing one protester.

KIDNAPPED

The gunmen forced Trujillo and his friends into a yellow rental pick-up truck, which they had called for by cell phone during the beatings, according to witnesses. The assailants then covered the men´s faces with their shirts and forced them face down in the back of the truck, knees pinning down their backs.

After driving for about 20 minutes, the gunmen stopped and switched to a white pick-up truck, where they placed nylon hoods over the three men and then took them to a warehouse - they think near the airport.

At the warehouse the gunmen tortured them, sticking needles under their finger nails (the scars were visible three days later), applying electric shocks to their feet, beating them on the head, and choking them, according to the three men, who were later released.

They asked them to identify militants in the APPO, the most active people at Radio Universidad, and the men who had captured two soldiers, and later released them, a few days before. The men had Oaxaca, Mexico City and northern Mexican accents.

BEING FRAMED

After some 10 hours of torture, the gunmen made them hold guns and then took pictures and filmed them with the guns in their hands. The three men were then taken to the federal Attorney General´s Office (PGR) complex in Oaxaca and charged with the federal crime of possession of illegal firearms.

They were held incommunicado at the PGR, where again they were interrogated and terrorized by threats. On Nov. 9, they were released on bail. Trujillo says he paid US$4,000 for his liberty.

It is unclear how many protesters have disappeared in the past weeks. With rumors constantly circulating through town, the number could be significantly less, or higher, than 30 - the number of known APPO protesters reported missing by family members.

The involvement of several levels of authorities also complicates the issue, says Jessica Sánchez, the president of the Mexican League for Human Rights Defense in Oaxaca.

Local, state and federal authorities make detentions without regard to jurisdiction, she said, and they take prisoners to random jails across the state.

The victims are refused access to lawyers and human rights workers, making the job of locating and identifying those on the list of disappeared extremely difficult, Sánchez said.

"This is testimony to the state of suspended guarantees in Oaxaca," she said, "of the lack of governability and the failure of public institutions."

The Zapatista November 20 Blockade in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas

Video

Colombia’s Indigenous Nasa Women Resist

by Teo Ballvé for NACLA

“C’mon, muchachos, let’s go!” With this abrupt order, Celia Eumesa and a group of the Nasa Indigenous Guard under her command jumped into a van and drove off in hot pursuit of a handful of guerrillas that had just kidnapped some people from her community. Armed with no more than decorative staffs, which they carry to symbolize indigenous authority, they sped behind the guerrillas’ car with a caravan of 60 other Indigenous Guards trailing behind.

When they had inched close enough to the car, Celia told her driver to beep the horn to see if the men would pullover. When the guerrillas refused, she told her driver: “Punch it. We have to pass them.” As Celia’s van lurched forward, so did the guerrillas’. “More! More!” she yelled, and eventually they managed to pass the car.

When they reached a safe distance ahead of the guerrillas, she ordered the van parked sideways to block the dirt road. Celia figured that since she had a bigger van, and the road was flanked by thick brush on both sides, the rebels wouldn’t try to recklessly bust through the makeshift roadblock. She was right.

The Nasa people, who number around 300,000, are Colombia’s second-largest indigenous group, mostly concentrated in the departamento (province) of Cauca. Their traditional homeland in this southwestern part of the country has been wracked by some of the worst violence in the country’s 42-year civil war. The armed conflict pits the Communist-inspired Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (or FARC in its Spanish initials) and smaller leftist insurgent groups against the Colombian military and its right-wing paramilitary supporters.
...

Telesur Journalist Arrested and Accused of "Terrorism" in Colombia

By Dan Feder
Nov 20
BOGOTA

Freddy Muñoz, correspondent in Colombia for the Venezuela-based cable news station Telesur, was detained last night at the Bogotá international airport as he returned from a trip to Caracas. He is now being held at the headquarters of the Administrative Department for Security (DAS, Colombia’s “secret narco-police”).

It has only been in the last few hours that this situation has come to light. Tonight, every Colombian newscast featured Muñoz’ face and the announcement that he was charged with “rebellion and terrorism,” specifically of involvement in two “terrorist attacks” in 2002, in the Caribbean cities of Cartagena and Barranquilla, according to a DAS official quoted by the EFE news agency. This was a clear attack on the independent and critical press by the Colombian government. Being publicly accused of “terrorism” is often an invitation for assassination attempts in Colombia, where armed paramilitary groups rush to take out anyone who can be portrayed as an “insurgent.” At the very least, the Colombian government, in allowing the press to discover the accusations against Muñoz has made a very heavy-handed attempt to discredit an accomplished journalist who has exposed the ugly side of the Colombian and U.S. governments’ war against leftwing rebels.

Muñoz’ work for Telesur has been most notable for his investigations into the problem of forced displacement in the Colombian civil war. Before working for Telesur he was a reporter and editor for several commercial newspapers and televisions shows. A short comment from him was just broadcast on Colombian television, in which he says, “I am neither a terrorist nor a rebel. I would have no time for such things, I have dedicated my life to the work of journalism.”

A protest outside the DAS offices in Bogota has been called for tomorrow at 11 a.m. We’ll keep watching and reporting on this brazen attack against freedom of the press in Colombia.

Costa Rica bans arms, munitions manufacturing

Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias on Wednesday signed into law a ban on manufacturing arms, munitions and military equipment components throughout the territory, including the nation's duty-free industrial zones.

The law limits the number of weapons any individual can legally own and bans the sale of guns to minors. It also creates a cross-department committee to oversee the improvement of arms control in the nation.

The new law came in response to criticisms by opposition parties and non-governmental organizations that Costa Rica's duty-free areas could become a center for arms manufacturing, once the legislature ratified a free trade agreement with the United States,

Arias dismissed these criticisms as "unjust". "No rational mind could permit the idea that a government led by a Nobel Prize winner would be interested in boosting arms production," he declared.

Arias won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his contribution to ending Central American civil wars.

In 1997, he launched a campaign to seek worldwide disarmament. In September, he told the United Nations General Assembly that destroying weapons is "the best way to bring poverty to an end", proposing an arms control treaty for all countries in the world.

Mexican leftist setting up parallel government

MEXICO CITY, Mexico

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has toured the country as if taking a victory lap. He's named a Cabinet and called for donations to fund his government.

Now the fiery leftist plans to be sworn in as the country's "legitimate president" on Monday as the country celebrates its 1910 revolution -- thumbing his nose at the country's highest electoral court, which declared conservative Felipe Calderon the presidential election winner by less than 1 percentage point.

Based in Mexico City, the parallel government will not try to collect taxes or make laws. It will have one objective: to hamper Calderon during his six-year term that begins December 1. His supporters have pledged to block Calderon's swearing-in ceremony before the Mexican Congress, although they have not announced how they plan to do so.

"We're not going to give the right free rein," Lopez Obrador said in a final stop in the southeastern state of Veracruz this weekend. "We're going to confront it."

According to Lopez Obrador's Web site, the campaign has opened bank accounts where Mexicans can donate money for his parallel government.

But it remains to be seen whether the man who claims the elections were tainted to favor the rich can keep up momentum.

Besieged by protests since the disputed July 2 presidential elections, many Mexicans are tired of political strife.

The upheaval has taken a heavy toll on the country's tourism industry, one of Mexico's main income generators. According to the Mexico Tourism Department, the number of foreign tourists visiting the country between January and September 2006 was down 4.3 percent from the same period in 2005.

The U.S. State Department has urged travelers to exercise caution while visiting Mexico and to avoid the southern city of Oaxaca, where a leftist protest not directly related to the presidential dispute has created chaos.

Columnist Rene Aviles called on Calderon to put things in order when he takes office. President Vicente Fox has been criticized for his hands-off approach to the conflicts.

"If Calderon wants to govern without so many blunders, he should start with a firm hand," Aviles wrote in the Mexico City newspaper Excelsior on Sunday.

Lopez Obrador also faces a challenge in uniting his Democratic Revolution Party. Some within Mexico's main leftist party have started to distance themselves from his civil resistance campaign, fearing they will lose support.

Others say Mexico needs strong action to focus more attention on its millions of poor and Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, is the man to do that.

Lopez Obrador's platform resonated with many Mexicans, forcing the business-friendly Calderon from Fox's conservative National Action Party to take note. He has borrowed heavily from ideas in Lopez Obrador's legislative agenda, including calling for universal health care.

The leftist's parallel government "could create the organization that is necessary to steer the country in a new economic direction," columnist Rosa Albina wrote in the Mexico City newspaper Reforma on Sunday.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The Other Campaign Begins its Tour Through Nuevo Leon, November 15

Meeting with Adherents in Monterrey and Apodaca at the Dr. Margil Museum House

By Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, The Other Mexico
November 19, 2006

Good, well… well now you all have really depressed me. I already regret asking you all to speak about how Nuevo Leon is doing.

Look compañeros, we are presenting ourselves in the stage we´re in right now. The defining stage continues, as the tour was suspended after what happened in Atenco. Here I respond to the compañeros who asked this. When we were in the Federal District they attacked the compañeros in Atenco – a compañero from the People’s Front in Defense of the Land is coming to the meeting tomorrow, I think – is the meeting tomorrow? – he´s going to speak, to tell what happened there.

We are confronted with the dilema of trying to build a movement where we are all compañeros –without everyone being the same – and we couldn´t go on as if nothing was happening in the hour that compañeros were being beaten. So we decided to suspend the tour of the Sexta Commission, thinking also that we would raise a big mobilization and succeed in getting them out soon.

What happened was that we were wrong, but not completely: yes we got out quite a few but there are a few still in there. The problem was that we had to fulfill our committment – I think it’s the committment of everyone who is an adherent – to be compañeros to one another, right?

Thanks to this we were then able to pass through the north of the Republic and were trusted by other movements and organizations that feel when they are saying they are compañeros there will be actions in support and solidarity, and not that it’s nothing more than a declaration.

What then happened was that the north was left pending by yourselves, as said in the Sixth Declaration: “This is who I am and this is where I am, this is how I see my problem,” so that the rest of the country would know. In this way the matter of the elections passed, and after the elections it was reaffirmed… Now they are talking much about stereotypes that say the north is blue and the south is yellow and that’s it.

That is, the country is divided by its electoral preferences and this has to do with living standards. So in the rest of the country is was thought – or is still thought, but we are trying to combat this – that the north is conservative. That it is conservative because of its standard of living.

When the tour began through the north – when it resumed – well, our big intellectuals on the left predicted failure: they said “no one is going to pay attention there, there everyone is PAN and has a high standard of living and that the Other Campaign doesn’t have anything to offer them, ending in failure.”

What the Other Campaign passing through the north has achieved has thrown this completely off, has it not? Not just that there have appeared at many struggles, organizations, sparks of resistance –as we say– but that also many people who don’t know about the Other Campaign have come close and have expressed disagreements that don’t have another place to be declared except than in the Other Campaign.

I once was in Monterrey, working here a long time ago and we were much fewer then than are now – can you remember? Now we are a good many. But I see that at the time when each person begins to speak about who they are and how they see the region, Monterrey, the urban cone zone, and the state of Nuevo Leon, well it’s as if they had said: recreation! And everyone went off to eat and hang out. And that there are now only a few left of the media compañeros who came from outside, right? Maybe its because you already have known each other for a while, right? Because you already know the roles.

I see that a lot of you insist that it’s time to leave behind these roles and move on to action. But we see here a series of groups and collectives which run the risk of believing what they are seeing as what is really happening.

This can happen with many organizations or groups that have been around for many years. There is a stereotype that in Monterrey the people are apathetic, that they don´t want to participate. Even though there is this meeting, even though it is after an electoral process that has produced fraud. Even though it is here, as a campaign of mental cleaning – as you all explained to us – that there are youth, there are workers, there are teachers, housewives, groups of sexual difference, and all that, and that they decide to be here in this space.

And in this space, which is important to maintain, you must form this maintainance by not closing off yourselves, but rather by tending the bridges in the north, as well as the rest of this country.

Look, what´s going to happen is that all this is going to turn itself over – I refer to all the country – its going to turn itself over and its not going to stick that the people are apathetic and don´t want to participate.

The conditions that you all have explained to us are in effect a broth of cultivation – as the traditionalists later said – for organization and popular struggle. But there is the problem that the political struggle that has the majority of the people, is refered to as the electoral political parties. Always when a movement or organization rises up, it ends up sold-out by its leader, or it ends up with a small group fastening itself in power.

So all this apathy that we see and that we are going to touch outside, has to do with the those parties and the political electoral organizations, and also with the attitude of the State towards those elections, no?

It will be difficult – we believe – to be able to convince the people that they must participate in elections after what happened when they imposed Felibe Calderón, no?

So, the effort of the Other Campaign is to be able to come together outside, to convince the people that it must begin another way of doing politics. And this other way of doing politics cannot be constructed if it is not constructed from the inside. If the Other Campaign says: “to you we offer to listen and take you into account,” how is it possible then that the Other Campaign doesn’t listen to itself and take itself into account? Which is what the compañeros signaled with the six points.

It cannot be that each person is listening to him or her self, or is listening to his or her own sector, because there is where it comes up against the wall, “it can’t be done, it can’t be done, the people are apathetic, I have to change the role.” Because of all that each doesn’t turn to look at his or her own compañeros.

If this can´t be built in Nuevo Leon, the chances are worse of it being built as the bridge Nuevo Leon needs with San Luis Potosí –that is coming to a head– Zacatecas, Chihuahua, the Lake Region, we are still missing the other part of Coahuila, but the Lake Region is in worse condition than it was in porfirismo (era under Porfirio Diaz´s rule) and in conditions of organization and rebellion similar to the uprising of 1910.

And it´s not, it´s not something subjective that we come to know, but that the very people are not manifesting that way. How is it possible that after a failed electoral campaign – as was the one with the political parties was – a movement presents itself that is not offering baseball caps, or dispenses, or tee-shirts, or anything, to say that the only thing that it promises is to struggle –nothing else, there is no other promise– and people arrive from all social stratas, fundamentally poor people, humble, that have been displaced, that are exploited, that are despised and repressed.

If Nuevo Leon remains on the margins of this – and I refer to the Other Nuevo Leon, not state of the Nuevo Leon – well then I cannot tell you that if the dream of seperating and becoming a state of the American Union is fulfilled it will be saved. Becuase it´s happened that we have also spoken with the undocumented and with the chicanos of the other side and it is also coming to a head on that side. If they are going to really close the border – as the republicans and democrats are proposing – the wave of pressure is going to make it crumble.

Look, in San Luis Potosí they explained this to us: people rose in their standard of living –like here–and later the price of agricultural products fell and wages fell. To maintain their standard of living people emigrated, they went to the other side. And their positions are now occupied by indigenous from Oaxaca, Puebla and Veracruz. They say “it was a step up,” yes? Part of San Luis Potosí was depopulated and is being repopulated with people from the south.

If things continue as they have been planned for us, well the same will happen in Nuevo Leon, its going to be depopulated and repopulated as we have been told about, right? But if they close the border, where does the next step up lead to? It starts to come up against the wall. And this is going to create a wave of discontent in the sector – we believe – that you all call, almost with disdain, the middle class. Those that had a certain standard of living, certain labor conditions, that – as the telephone operators told us – are already heading backward.

When I worked here, they were cutting down to the last chair of telephone operador and that they wouldn´t be hurt and everything would turn out okay. That is, demands on the offensive –as we called them. And now it even goes until retirement. As if all the workers movement – the same as the campesinos, the same as the indigenous – are up against the wall. But what is a lie – what we have seen in the rest of the country – is that there is a wall behind us; there is not a wall, there is a precipice.

And these conditions are making the people take a step forward, but there isn’t an alternative. For that is the great success of which the mesiahs speak, “ Before I, from above, must come the poor” and all that, because it is presented as an option, even though in the end it doesn’t work out.

So, as this alternative doesn’t appear, the people are going to start resolving their problems exactly as you all outlined it: with the “I-I.” “I have this problem,” I teacher, I student, I in the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, I in Monterrey Tech –I already said it- in the UDM or in the colony, or in the problem of housing. And one begins to search for where and yes, in the Other Campaign they find this space, but one still has to fight so that his or her compañeros in Nuevo Leon hear it.

And the example that the compañera from the lesbian movement gives us is clear, because what she left out in saying was that inside the Other Campaign one has to conquer a space for sexual difference. And there, at best it comes against the wall with the regiomontanos – and another already said that we really are macho – but it’s going to find bridges to other parts of the Republic, where this movement is steadier, or steadying itself, more or less.

A debate about identity must be constucted, for example, with lesbian dissidence: if it’s dissidence, if it´s difference, it’s what it is. All this goes along the pathway of modifying laws or goes along the pathway of imposing its presence and making its rights matter.

And that way in each place, or in each sector, perhaps the workers union movement finds bridges to other workers union movements that are rising, or workers groups that have not yet planned the union option. Those are the workers of the maquilas. They have salaries of 45 pesos a day with workdays of 14 hours, 16 hours, against the wall. Moreover, its a workers movment with indigenous roots, and I will tell you about the latter.

So, the normal workers emigrate to the other side, and it’s the indigenous of the mountains: for example in Puebla there are indigenous who have come down the mountain and now they are workers, but they still remain indigenous. So this gives a very otherly composition, very much ready to confront the owner through the production line and rebel against him. And it´s a generation between 15 and 20 years old, that doesn´t have another choice but to survive and struggle.

In the moment that we see, the moment that another possibility or another pathway is opened up, is when many people come close, but with skepticism: “we’re going to wait to see what happens.” Those people who are outside that say it’s so bad and so alienating –as they have said – if we bring them into this assembly, then they say, “no, better not me.” Because they are the same roles as always, the same lament, the complaint –as the compañera said- and there isn´t the proposal at all that we are going to succesfully convince these people. This is the faith or this foolishness – as we´ve said – that the left must have, that when everything is against us, however foolish it is, that we go on.

So we´ve said that these assemblies or these meetings serve to introduce ourselves and to know each other. But yes we feel – as the compañero said at the end – that up until here we are getting to know each other. And that´s the first part. But it is also getting to know those in San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas. And later its going to get to know Tamaulipas, thi is the way of the Other Campaign.

The rest of the speech has yet to be posted.

Ollie North Returns to Nicaragua

by Greg Grandin

With the election of former Sandanista leader Daniel Ortega as president, Nicaragua shows its refusal genuflect to Washington's commands, and that makes Cold Warriors like Ollie North furious.

The electoral wave that battered Republicans last week rolled well beyond Ohio and Arizona, traveling as far south as Nicaragua, where voters rejected intense U.S. pressure and elected Daniel Ortega president. This was Ortega's third attempt to regain the office since stepping down in 1990, after a decade in power as the head of the revolutionary Sandinista government. And even as George W. Bush was stumping for his candidates in the heartland, Oliver North was traveling down to Managua to urge Nicaraguans to vote for anyone but Ortega.

The ex-Marine colonel told Nicaraguans that they had "suffered enough from the influence of outsiders" -- a remark meant to criticize Hugo Chávez's support for Ortega but that some, considering North's role in running the covert operation that illegally funded the anti-Sandinista Contras in the 1980s, must have mistaken for a confession. In addition to North, Bush's Ambassador to Nicaragua, Paul Trivelli, threatened that the United States could cut off aid, while congressional Republicans warned that they would pass legislation prohibiting Nicaraguans living in the United States from sending remittances home if Nicaraguans voted the wrong way.

Over the last couple of weeks, with polls predicting that an Ortega win seemed likely, conservative blogs, think tanks, and policy intellectuals whipped themselves up into a near-frenzy at the thought of a Sandinista comeback. The National Review breathlessly warned that a triumphant Ortega would bring the threat of nuclear or biological terrorism to "within walking distance of our undefended border." Over at the Washington Post, the American Enterprise Institute's Roger Noriega predicted that an Ortega victory would push Nicaragua "toward the abyss."

But Ortega is a changed man from the revolutionary who for more than a decade withstood a Washington-backed assault of intense ferocity. He has declared himself a free-trade Christian, and just before the vote joined forces with the Catholic Church to back an anti-abortion law that is more punitive than anything James Dobson's Focus on the Family hopes to pass here in the United States.

The reason for such hysteria cannot be explained by what Ortega may or may not do once in office, but rather by the dissonance his victory creates deep in the recesses of the neocon psyche.

Central America, particularly Nicaragua, played a key role in the formation of the world view of our foreign-policy hawks. As diplomatic historian Andrew Bacevich points out, in "neoconservative lore, 1980 stands out not only as a year of crisis but as the year when the nation decisively turned things around." When considering this turnaround, most casual observers usually point to the fall of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Eastern Europe. Neocons, though, have a complicated relationship to those two events, coming about as they did not through confrontational militarism but negotiation and patience. Just a few years ago, when pressed by the Republican chair of the House Armed Services Committee to admit that Bush's Iraq policy was similar to Ronald Reagan's in Europe, Wesley Clark had to remind his interrogator that "Reagan never invaded Eastern Europe." In fact, Reagan, in sharp contrast to his rhetorical escalation of the Cold War and his increase in defense spending, followed a course of restraint in most foreign policy arenas, so much so that by 1986 his conservative base had taken to calling him the Soviet Union's "useful idiot" for negotiating arms reductions with Mikhail Gorbachev.

There was, however, one area where the administration's rhetoric did match its actions, and that was Central America. The United States spent billions of dollars, and trained and inflamed anti-communist allies that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians.

But the United States did win. Leftist insurgencies were defeated in El Salvador and Guatemala, and Ortega and the Sandinistas, after sacrificing the idealist goals of their revolution in order to defend themselves against a war of aggression launched by the most powerful nation in world history, were voted out of office in 1990.

For neocons, that this victory took place simultaneously with America's victory in the Cold War led to a dangerous conflation: extrapolating from the defeat of the Central American left, they gave credit for America's triumph over the Soviet Union to the kind of hardline Reagan pursued in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.

This is why, over the last couple of years, as the situation in Iraq deteriorated, Central America has made its way into the pronouncements of Bush officials and allies with a frequency that Freud would find familiar. With dissent against the occupation building, William Kristol went on TV to hail Reagan's Central American policy -- which directly led to the deaths of 300,000 civilians, tens of thousands of whom were simply "disappeared," the torture of over a hundred thousand more, and the exile of more than a million -- as an "amazing success story, over the bitter opposition of the Left." In the 2004 vice presidential debates, Dick Cheney held up not post-WWII Japan or Germany, but El Salvador, with 50 percent of its population below the poverty level and violent crime at record highs, as a model for what his administration hoped to achieve in Iraq. Responding to accusations that John Negroponte's involvement in the coverup of hundreds of executions while he was ambassador to Honduras made him unfit to serve as America's intelligence czar, the National Review praised Reagan's policy in Central America as a "spectacularly successful fight to introduce and sustain Western political norms in the region."

It turns out that that "Salvador option" -- the Pentagon's phrase to refer to its reliance on ex-Baathist paramilitaries in Iraq -- is not just the use of death squads to maintain order in neocolonial provinces. It is also a tool of imperial self-denial, a refusal to acknowledge the failure, not to mention the cost in human lives, of U.S. militarism. Noriega's Washington Post essay is a classic piece of displacement, blaming the Sandinistas for the wretchedness of today's Nicaragua that is, in fact, Reagan's legacy.

"It is very painful in a very personal way," Ollie North said. "I spent a good deal of my career on trying to achieve a democratic outcome down there." The election of Ortega is the Cold War's return of the repressed, an irrepressible confirmation that U.S. policy has not brought humane development to the region but deepening misery.

That the Sandinistas remain the single most popular party in Nicaragua is also evidence of the limits of U.S. power, especially when it is exercised purely in military terms, which is, after all, the favorite exercise of the neocons. A country as poor as Nicaragua, in a region long locked into the United States' sphere of influence, bucking Washington's diktats is an intolerable embarrassment. Hundreds of thousands of Central Americans killed, tens of thousands of them disappeared, another hundred thousand tortured, and millions more driven into exile, and Nicaragua still refuses to genuflect to Washington's commands.
*

Greg Grandin teaches Latin American history at New York University and is the author of a number of books, including the just published "Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism."

Women, Political Parties, Barricades and Autonomy

by BARUCHA CALAMITY PELLER
Oaxaca

Who Will Live On in the Oaxaca Uprising?

Although Governor Ulises Ruiz still holds office, and federal police forces occupy the Zocalo of Oaxaca City, the people of Oaxaca have removed the government in practice. The Mexican federal government calls this practice "ungovernability", but this state of "ungovernability"- in which politicians are not recognized, streets are barricaded in rebellion, and mass media outlets are taken over- is the most natural answer to the repression that has threatened the survival of Oaxacans for decades. "Ungovernability", is not chaos nor is it a break-down of civilized social order, it is the sanest and healthiest solution for the people of Oaxaca, because as long as they are not governed they are not repressed. Being ungoverned by others means being ungoverned by and neo liberal misery, Oaxacans have began to create a space where they direct and govern their own lives. The government, while having the opportunity has failed to make any acceptable political concessions to the Oaxacan movement, and has therefore even further demonstrated the realization that is dawning on many parts of the Mexican landscape- that the ideas, desires, and actions of people will never be governable.

The question then is- can APPO (The Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca) continue to realize the same thing?

The Congress-Plans, Problems, and the Lack of A Process of Gender Analysis Integration

The APPO Congress consisted of "mesas", exploratory sessions to debate the form the APPO and its actions will take in the future, the question of international, national, and state context, and the crisis of institutions. The ten people in charge of facilitating the Congress were accused on the second day of having "double interests" (interests with a political party) and changing and omitting some proposals that came forth. This came forth in spite of the fact that decisions were made by over a thousand people representing different sections of the APPO, and for the most part decisions were made on a consensus basis.

Throughout the weekend congress and continuing today is the debate over the participation of political parties. The APPO does not consider itself a political party, however, there is much discussion as to what extent the APPO can have alliances with political parties. Although among many Mexicans there is culture of distrust of political parties, and there has certainly been an anti-government and anti-authoritarian felling in the Oaxacan movement, there has been a disturbing presence of the PRD party in the previous directive body of the APPO. The "leftist" PRD party's presidential candidate, Lopez Obredor, lost the national election this summer to federal electoral fraud, sparking a social movement of millions of Mexicans in protest of the fraud and Calderon, the un-democractically elected president.

As Lopez Obredor said in a speech Wednesday, "What the directive companeros of the APPO ask of us-we are here to support them. They will decide what we can do to help the people of Oaxaca."

During the Congress speakers often noted that the APPO is an organization open to anyone, including political parties if they are in favor of APPO demands. The PRD has many stakes in the Oaxaca movement, because if Governor Ulises is ousted before December 1st he would lose immunity and there would be new elections according to the Oaxacan Constitution. The PRD would surely be elected, since they are the only party existing beside the ousted PRI is the PAN, the crafters of the entrance of the PFP (Federal Preventative Police). In the meantime, the PAN and the PRI both desire that Ulises remains in power until the 1st, because that would grant Ulises the power to appoint a new governor, who would come from his PRI party.

It was decided that the APPO directive base, or the "Consejo", will consist of about 220 members, who are representatives from certain regions or organizations, including students, a spot for "barricades and neighborhoods" and about forty spots allocated for the section 22 teachers union. This is a bright change from the "provisional", leadership, about forty people who have taken up leadership for months despite that their role would be only temporary. Out of this forty, thirty will remain in the Consejo.

During the Congress it was also decided that the APPO would carry through with marches and actions in the coming weeks. Some of these actions are aimed at taking over government offices and institutions throughout the state. Road blockades are planned, cultural events, as well as the re-taking of the federal police occupied Zocalo of Oaxaca City on November 2Oth, the anniversary of the Mexican revolution and the day of the nation-wide strike called by the Zapatistas. This is also the day that Obredor's supporters will name him president.

Up for debate during the mesa on the crisis of institutions was whether to reform existing capitalist and government institutions or whether to create new and autonomous ones. A clear decision has not been reached in this respect. But a physical battle almost erupted after one speaker said,

"I consider it important that the APPO negotiates and occupies decision making spaces and those of power effectively in institutions; that the APPO negotiates with the federal government and takes spaces in the federal government and takes spaces in the state government, and is not against the search of deep transformation. It is necessary to analyze the form that the APPO takes in the local legislature, so that proposals can be solidified and it can participate in the next electoral process. But there was no consensus in formation of a political party. This in of itself could be the end of the social movement."

The APPO seeks to use the wide range of political strategies to their advantage, and the objective of the congress was to be inclusive of the politics of the rainbow of participants. But the congress did not succeed in reaching a consensus of a general political formation of the APPO, and in this lack of common agreement is the space in which political parties, mostly the PRD, seek to inject their interests.

However, there were 473 representatives from indigenous communities at the Congress, and Oaxaca is the state with the largest indigenous population in the country. The indigenous communities in Oaxaca have traditionally organized within their communities using "usos y costumbres" and lean towards politics of autonomy, Zapatismo, and Magonismo. It is highly unlikely that the indigenous bases within the APPO will take part in reforming government institutions or seek to participate or gain power in the electoral process. The influence of ideas rooted in these communities, ideas of community run direct democracy, have had a big impact in the movement in previous months and will continue to be a fundamental part of the APPO, no matter what direction some of the APPO leadership seek to take.

"We have an urgency that women enter into descions," says Jessica Sanches Maya, a member of the Liga "We demand at least 33% participation".

When the time came to vote for the percentage of women who would regularly participate as members of the Consejo, it was clear that the APPO had failed to integrate a gender analysis into their previous political debates at the mesas. The mesa named "Analysis of the International, National, and State Context" accomplished a coherent current class analysis of Mexico, but never discussed patriarchy and Mexico's long history of oppression of women on a social, economic, and political scale. It was assumed in the APPO congress that because women were present and because women's voices haven´t been directly repressed within the movement, patriarchy was not a factor that could threaten political decisions in the future or that was necessary to analyze. The congress also consisted mostly of male representatives.

Because of this, patriarchy and a historically based gender analysis was not integrated into the concept of representation. The vote between whether women should have at least a 33% representation or a 50% representation was debated for over an hour. Men who spoke on the side of a 33% representation argued that it would not be possible to have half of the representatives for each organization, region, or sector be women, because many had very little or no women participants.

However, the women in the Oaxacan resistance have had a strong presence, and certainly have taken the most combative and action orientated roles. The lack of women participating to the fullest capacity has had bad implications for the movement. Women had a central role in taking over several media outlets, including Channel 9 television. The taking of channel 9 television was extremely prominent; reflected by more people watching the channel after the takeover by APPO women than in the history of the channel. At Channel 9 and the radios that the women took over, they taught themselves and then others how to use the equipment, and televised or transmitted reports on the Zapatistas and the spring siege of Atenco, among other social struggles happening around the country. In this way they provided a window of information in which Oaxacans could peer out into the context of their struggle. The liberated media outlets were also crucial in coordination and communication between neighborhoods and barricades before and during the PFP invasion.

APPO and the Barricades-Leaders, Political Parties, and Ungovernable Will in the Street

There are people in Oaxaca who will tell you that they are with the resistance to the government, but that they are not a part of the APPO. Before the entrance of the federal police, the three thousand barricades that were constructed around the city were constructed on a neighborhood basis- it was the neighbors that decided to take action and organize locally in rebellion. Many of these participants were in fact members and supporters of APPO, but the APPO simply acted as a name and an organizational umbrella infrastructure in which people took part by participating in the assemblies to the extent that they wanted to. Oaxacans took over the streets with barricades and organized within their neighborhoods, but these actions did not necessarily result from an APPO leadership consensus, and the barricades became phenomena out of the hands of the APPO. In fact, the barricades have always been the most radical elements of the movement, not only in their spontaneous and rebellious form, but in the fact that they have existed outside of the directive of the APPO. All of the barricades except the Cinco Senores university barricade were removed when the Federal Preventive Police entered into Oaxaca City on October 28th. The barricades have not been reconstructed despite calls to action to do so. This may be because the dead, missing, and arrested have largely resulted from repression at the barricades. And after nearly 6 months of the Oaxacan struggle, people may be tired to continue maintaining barricades. This is compounded with comments by APPO leaders such as Flavio Sosa, who say the barricades have no function.

Flavio Sosa, one the most well known faces in the APPO, a man with many federal warrants on his name for his participation in the movement and a figure often named as an APPO "leader", is indeed able to make statements and present himself as a person favorable to the people of Oaxaca. Sosa will certainly have a strong voice in APPO in the times to come. However, Sosa was extremely active in the eighties and nineties within the PRD, giving those in Oaxaca that do not trust the sincerity of the PRD's leftist profile a sense of disillusionment with the internal desires of some the APPO leadership.

This was further compounded on November 2nd, when the Federal Preventive Forces arrived at Cinco Senores, the series of barricades surrounding the University and its APPO run radio, where barricadistas (people who maintain and defend the barricades in their communities) were readying themselves for the battle to come, gathering gas masks, slings, and bazookas.

According to people at the Soriana barricade, which runs across the streets on one side of the university entrance, and is a key part of element of the entire university barricade, Sosa arrived to the barricade and ordered that they be taken down.

"I was there, I heard him, and that's exactly what he said, ´the barricades should be taken down´. And of course with the PFP coming towards us no one took down the barricades, and we still haven't." said Maria Guerrero, a barricadista who has spent weeks coordinating at the barricade.

The seven hour battle between the PFP and the barricadistas that proceeded the conversation resulted in an amazing defeat of the police and the successful defense of the barricades, the occupied university, and most importantly, the protester radio-which to this day is the last transmitting APPO radio. The barricade is now referred to as the Barricade Of Victory. During the battle, in which protesters caused the retreat of federal preventive police, armed with tear gas launching helicopters and water tanks, Flavio Sosa stayed in the safe zone inside the university, and at one point demanded to be able to say a few things on the radio, but was denied by the people inside.

Sosa only came out into the streets when the police retreated and the barricadistas and the local people were celebrating victory, to stand with them and claim his part of the victory in front of the neighbors that had participated in the battle.

"I don't have proof, but I believe there have been generalized attempts of the APPO leadership to debilitate the movement, and particularly the barricades, which have always have remained out of their control. And that's why you see that the APPO had decided days before November 2nd that there would not be confrontations with the PFP" says Guerrero.

Some of anti-authoritarian sectors of the APPO movement seem to be musing over the possible motives of the APPO leadership and their connections to the PRD party.

There are two theories to why the PRD elements in the APPO had a stake in the removal of the barricades by the Federal Preventive Police, and have urged that here be little confrontation with police. The first one is that the "directors" of the APPO´s previous negotiations with the federal government, which, although failed in many respects, included opening up avenues and streets for movement in Oaxaca City. The success of these negotiations might have created a political opening for the PRD in the sense they had the opportunity to will the federal government, particularly the Secretary of Government, Carlos Abazco Carranza, to criticize Ulises Ruiz and assist in his ousting.

The other theory is that the PAN wants the movement to end quickly with the approaching d-day of December 1rst, where the PAN presidential candidate Felipe Calderon is set to take power amongst tumultuous social upheaval over the summer elections that were frauded in Calderon's favor. The winding down of the movement in Oaxaca will provide a somewhat smoother landing surface for Calderon to take power. Because the APPO leaders, including spokesperson Flavio Sosa, have serious federal warrants on their names, it is believed that perhaps Carranza threatened to make good on the warrants if the movement continued, or to not follow through with the apprehensions if the movement backed down in the days leading up to the 1rst . The leaders asked for asylum in the Catholic Church last week because of their warrants but were denied. Yet still, Sosa and other APPO leaders can be seen walking the streets relatively freely, despite the fact that they are wanted by the federal government.

The university barricades, Cinco Senores, continues to hold despite lack of direct backing from APPO. Last week, barricadistas called in to the university radio behind the barricades saying, "We don't care what the APPO says, we are not taking down our barricades."

Paramilitary threats continue, as well as arbitrary detentions of the barricadistas. As striking teachers returned to work in many parts of the state on Monday, only some of the students entered the university through the barricades to meet with teachers, yet there were no classes. The press took advantage of this to paint an image that the students were defiantly returning to classes. The mainstream press is also reporting that the students are not returning to classes at the university "because the conditions are not right", referring to the protesters at the barricades and citing a safety issue. However, people occupying the university and the barricades to support the radio say that the safety threat lies in the PRIistas who shoot into the university at night and attack the radio on an almost daily basis. To strengthen ties between the barricade and the surrounding community, a cultural event took place Wednesday night at the Cinco Senores University Barricades where films of the Oaxacan uprising were projected onto buses that block the intersection for the neighbors and barricade defenders.

It is ultimately up to the people of Oaxaca to decide if they will replace one political party with another or if they will estrange themselves from all parties, to what extent they will be governed or how they will govern themselves, and what tactics they will take to counter the repression that continues to keep pace with the movement, as death seeks to outrun freedom.

Last minute breaking news:

Political assassinations have become more frequent in Oaxaca in recent days. A 22 year old Oaxacan, Daniel, who was studying in Chiapas, came to Oaxaca over the weekend with the caravan of Zapatistas from Las Abejas. He was kidnapped on Sunday and his body was found on Monday. Later, when his body was being transported in a vehicle with his family, police forces in ski masks stopped the car and took the body, saying that an autopsy must be done. His body has not appeared in any morgue and the whereabouts of his body is unknown This morning, a lawyer was shot three times two blocks away from Santo Domingo plaza, occupied by the APPO since the eviction of the Zocalo by federal preventive police. It is believed that assassinations are being carried out one by one to create an atmosphere of fear and unknowing to repress the Oaxacan social movement.

Latin America is preparing to settle accounts with its white settler elite

by Richard Gott
November 19, 2006, The Guardian

The political movements and protests sweeping the continent - from Bolivia to Venezuela - are as much about race as class

The recent explosion of indigenous protest in Latin America, culminating in the election this year of Evo Morales, an Aymara indian, as president of Bolivia, has highlighted the precarious position of the white-settler elite that has dominated the continent for so many centuries. Although the term "white settler" is familiar in the history of most European colonies, and comes with a pejorative ring, the whites in Latin America (as in the US) are not usually described in this way, and never use the expression themselves. No Spanish or Portuguese word exists that can adequately translate the English term.

Latin America is traditionally seen as a continent set apart from colonial projects elsewhere, the outcome of its long experience of settlement since the 16th century. Yet it truly belongs in the history of the global expansion of white-settler populations from Europe in the more recent period. Today's elites are largely the product of the immigrant European culture that has developed during the two centuries since independence.

The characteristics of the European empires' white-settler states in the 19th and 20th centuries are well known. The settlers expropriated the land and evicted or exterminated the existing population; they exploited the surviving indigenous labour force on the land; they secured for themselves a European standard of living; and they treated the surviving indigenous peoples with extreme prejudice, drafting laws to ensure they remained largely without rights, as second- or third-class citizens.

Latin America shares these characteristics of "settler colonialism", an evocative term used in discussions about the British empire. Together with the Caribbean and the US, it has a further characteristic not shared by Europe's colonies elsewhere: the legacy of a non-indigenous slave class. Although slavery had been abolished in much of the world by the 1830s, the practice continued in Latin America (and the US) for several decades. The white settlers were unique in oppressing two different groups, seizing the land of the indigenous peoples and appropriating the labour of their imported slaves.

A feature of all "settler colonialist" societies has been the ingrained racist fear and hatred of the settlers, who are permanently alarmed by the presence of an expropriated underclass. Yet the race hatred of Latin America's settlers has only had a minor part in our customary understanding of the continent's history and society. Even politicians and historians on the left have preferred to discuss class rather than race.

In Venezuela, elections in December will produce another win for Hugo Chávez, a man of black and Indian origin. Much of the virulent dislike shown towards him by the opposition has been clearly motivated by race hatred, and similar hatred was aroused the 1970s towards Salvador Allende in Chile and Juan Perón in Argentina. Allende's unforgivable crime, in the eyes of the white-settler elite, was to mobilise the rotos, the "broken ones" - the patronising and derisory name given to the vast Chilean underclass. The indigenous origins of the rotos were obvious at Allende's political demonstrations. Dressed in Indian clothes, their affinity with their indigenous neighbours would have been apparent. The same could be said of the cabezas negras - "black heads" - who came out to support Perón.

This unexplored parallel has become more apparent as indigenous organisations have come to the fore, arousing the whites' ancient fears. A settler spokesman, Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian-now-Spanish novelist, has accused the indigenous movements of generating "social and political disorder", echoing the cry of 19th-century racist intellectuals such as Colonel Domingo Sarmiento of Argentina, who warned of a choice between "civilisation and barbarism".

Latin America's settler elites after independence were obsessed with all things European. They travelled to Europe in search of political models, ignoring their own countries beyond the capital cities, and excluding the majority from their nation-building project. Along with their imported liberal ideology came the racialist ideas common among settlers elsewhere in Europe's colonial world. This racist outlook led to the downgrading and non-recognition of the black population, and, in many countries, to the physical extermination of indigenous peoples. In their place came millions of fresh settlers from Europe.

Yet for a brief moment during the anti-colonial revolts of the 19th century, radical voices took up the Indian cause. A revolutionary junta in Buenos Aires in 1810 declared that Indians and Spaniards were equal. The Indian past was celebrated as the common heritage of all Americans, and children dressed as Indians sang at popular festivals. Guns cast in the city were christened in honour of Tupac Amaru and Mangoré, famous leaders of Indian resistance. In Cuba, early independence movements recalled the name of Hatuey, the 16th-century cacique, and devised a flag with an Indian woman entwined with a tobacco leaf. Independence supporters in Chile evoked the Araucanian rebels of earlier centuries and used Arauco symbols on their flags. Independence in Brazil in 1822 brought similar displays, with the white elite rejoicing in its Indian ancestry and suggesting that Tupi, spoken by many Indians, might replace Portuguese as the official language.

The radicals' inclusive agenda sought to incorporate the Indian majority into settler society. Yet almost immediately this strain of progressive thought disappears from the record. Political leaders who sought to be friendly with the indigenous peoples were replaced by those anxious to participate in the global campaign to exterminate indigenous peoples. The British had already embarked on that task in Australia and South Africa, and the French took part after 1830 when they invaded Algeria.

Latin America soon joined in. The purposeful extermination of indigenous peoples in the 19th century may well have been on a larger scale than anything attempted by the Spanish and the Portuguese in the earlier colonial period. Millions of Indians died because of a lack of immunity to European diseases, yet the early colonists needed the Indians to grow food and to provide labourers. They did not have the same economic necessity to make the land free from Indians that would provoke the extermination campaigns on other continents in the same era. The true Latin American holocaust occurred in the 19th century.

The slaughter of Indians made more land available for settlement, and between 1870 and 1914 five million Europeans migrated to Brazil and Argentina. In many countries the immigration campaigns continued well into the 20th century, sustaining the hegemonic white-settler culture that has lasted to this day.

Yet change is at last on the agenda. Recent election results have been described, with some truth, as a move to the left, since several new governments have revived progressive themes from the 1960s. Yet from a longer perspective these developments look more like a repudiation of Latin America's white-settler culture, and a revival of that radical tradition of inclusion attempted two centuries ago. The outline of a fresh struggle, with a final settling of accounts, can now be discerned.

* This article is based on the third annual SLAS lecture, given to the Society for Latin American Studies in October. Richard Gott is the author of Cuba: A New History (Yale University Press

We Are Native Venezuelans, And We Want To Continue Existing As We Are

Note: With full appreciation of the urgency of the native struggle described below, and concerned for the danger inherent in their isolation from wider communities of resistance, the Indigenous Solidarity Working Group of Rising Tide North America is organizing a support project to help raise funds for an indigenous delegation from Venezuela to participate in the Zapatista / "Other Campaign" Intergalactic Gathering in Chiapas, Mexico, December 31-January 2, 2006, to help connect their indigenous Venezuelan communities with others also fighting government repression and neo-liberal development policies that threaten to destroy their land, and eradicate their culture. If you are able to contribute to our efforts to bring our delegation of Venezuelan indigenous brother and sisters in resistance please contact: Cristian Guerrero- guerrero(@)riseup.net

We Are Native Venezuelans,
And We Want To Continue Existing As We Are.

Our words summoning Help with our independent struggle to Defend our Land, to realize our Right for self-determination, to Unmask and Defeat the neo-liberal, genocidal energy policies of the "Bolivarian Revolution."

Written by Wayuú (native Venezuelan) professor Jose Angel Quintero with the Commission of Venezuelan Indigenous Peoples in Defense of the Land, representing Wayuú, Barí, Yukpa, Pumé, and Pemón indigenous Venezuelan nations

Translated from Spanish by Rising Tide North America

We Are Native Venezuelans,
And We Want To Continue Existing As We Are.

Part 1.
Venezuela: A country of fabricated identity.

Until very recently, our country Venezuela was seen by the world to be a nation whose main offerings on the international stage earned us the reputation as:
a) the grand producer of petroleum at a global scale and one of the principal energy suppliers of the United States;
b) the grand producer of short-stops for the Major Leagues of North American baseball; and
c) the grand producer of Misses for the Miss Universe beauty pageants.

In other words, until the 27th of February 1989, date of the great popular rebellion against the "structural adjustment" of economic measures imposed in our country by the International Monetary Fund, Venezuela was considered to be a "solid democratic" country, one where people had in their hearts the "reason" of and the "respect" for the democracy of the political parties that traditionally traded governmental powers for over 40 years.

So until that date, the people and country of Venezuela only generated glances of interest in the eyes of petroleum analysts, baseball scouts, or fashion magazines. The indigenous communities of the country did not even exist in the imagination or recognition of the global community. And since then, the so-called international "intellectual" sectors, all convinced that the moment of social, political, and economic transformation has now come, emanating progressively from the "revolutionary" government of Chavez, have universally disregarded us indigenous as also representing a point of reference for social movements in our country.

In any case, this fabricated cultural and economic identity that had been created for Venezuela not only responded to the commercial, political and energy needs of those in power, but this false face was really for us indigenous a non-face, which denied and still continues to deny us our existence. Adding to this situation of neglect against indigenous Venezuelans was our "scarce" presence or our lack of numerical importance, or the lack of importance of our contribution to the national economy, which is to say the continuation of the false face that has been made for our country. And now, it has been decided that we should be completely decimated, denying our right to inhabit our ancestral territories where we have traditionally lived and where, at this moment, our struggle is rooted.

We Are Native Venezuelans,
And We Want To Continue Existing As We Are.

Part 2.
The new face: the "Bolivarian Revolution"

The coming of Hugo Chavez's government provoked a sense of hope in a majority of the national social sectors (including us). The promises of transformation of our society into a true democracy of participation and respect, with liberty and dignity for all, were a catalyst for the social support that we all gave to the government of the so-called fifth republic.

However, after 8 years of being established, and after instituting the new national Constitution, we the indigenous communities and a good part of Venezuelans in general have become aware that the changed features the new Constitution has given to the country represent nothing more than make-up to hide the same old wrinkles that our country still wears.

In our case, the new Constitution clearly states that it cannot afford us the consideration as indigenous communities in the terms that international law gives to this recognition. In other words, we are not given authentic rights of self-government and autonomy inside our territories: instead we are given small "habitats," where we can biologically reproduce, but never exercise our political rights.

Further, the new Constitution says that the state and its classes in power are the true owners of land and of the subsurface, and with this they reserve the rights to exploit the mineral resources, the petroleum, the gas, and all the biodiversity that can be found within our ancestral territorial spaces.

As such, attending to the neo-liberal dictates of Plan IIRSA (the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America) and the recommendations of the World Bank advocating a "territorial reconfiguration" to make use of Venezuela's "competitive advantages" and thereby improve the level of national economic efficiency and productivity, the government of the Bolivarian "revolution" has decided to come and seize control over these so-called "habitats"- the territory that we defend as our land.

For the government of the Bolivarian "revolution", its aim is to legalize the entrance of multi-national corporations onto our land- and with this, Chavez finds common ground with his worst enemies of the traditional ring-wing in the country. That is to say, by taking our last spaces of survival the government and the opposition concur, because for either of the two the game is the same: generate foreign investment and the exploitation of our natural resources for the sole purpose of generating a "profit"- and it doesn't matter if the indigenous communities of this country are harmed by these plans.

This is the context of our current struggle. In this struggle we have been alone until now; because, as we have said before, in these neo-liberal plans for development, the government of Hugo Chavez and his opposition are in business together. And the mass communication networks, both of the government and of the opposition sectors, silence our words and minimize our actions.

That is why we consider urgent our task to communicate our struggle and words in as many spaces as possible- nationally and internationally. We are also aware that the reality that indigenous communities in Venezuela are living is not a problem that is exclusively our own, but rather it is a continental reality, and as such we must join our struggle with the rest of the indigenous communities, who like us, and in these times of globalization, are struggling to sustain their very survival and with it the life and liberty of all communities.

We Are Native Venezuelans,
And We Want To Continue Existing As We Are.

Part 3.
Breaking the silence of our words. Joining our struggles.

The loneliness of our struggle becomes big and heavy, because we have to fight against the imposed silence of our words and protests in the mainstream news networks. We've had to fight against the campaigns of defamation on the part of the mining and oil companies that try to discredit us and our leaders, and try and take our land by way of concessions given out by the government of the fifth republic. We fight against the ignorance of those who merely do not know- but at other times we must clearly confront the accomplices, the intellectual sectors, the social movements, and even brother and sister natives, indigenous blood, in other countries, who have not been able to understand how it's possible that a government whose main reputation is its popular discourse against Bush and imperialism, and at the same time, internally, yields to the appetites and impositions of imperial multi-national corporations, including those that the Bush family has stock and interest in; capital. And if that wasn't enough bitter ironies, all this comes at the detriment of us, the indigenous- us who Hugo Chavez publicly says he is "defending."

It is against this enormous contradiction within the government that we have been struggling against for the last five years- demanding the demarcation and recognition of our territories, and that it suspend all territorial concessions awarded to multi-national mining, gas, oil, lumber, and even tourism corporations that it has signed behind closed doors and without our consent. But as we've said before, we're not only up against the government; we also have to struggle against the government's worst enemies. In the end, it is here with these projects that government and opposition coincide, and in this sense the government has shown it is open to continuing the same neo-liberal plans and politics as before.

All this said, it is a crucial step for us to break the silence of our words. And now with the opportunity offered by our Zapatista brothers and sisters, (who with their struggle and the defense of their dignity, have become for us a point of reference in the sustenance of our own)- with their invitation to the international gathering/meeting of pueblos and communities in resistance in Chiapas this New Year, it is a very important scenario for us and our objective to let others know about the true reality that people's struggle of Venezuela in general, and the indigenous communities in particular are going through in these times.

For this purpose we have prepared a Commission of Venezuelan Indigenous Pueblos in Defense of the Land, made up of 6 representatives from the ethnicities: Wayuú, Barí, Yukpa, Pumé, and Pemón- and accompanied by a group of non-indigenous allies, to be present at this Intergalactic Gathering, to express our voice and words, and to join our struggle with all the peoples and communities who will be present there.

However, to attain these goals we have to find the financial resources necessary so that these compañer@s representatives can make their journey from Venezuela to Mexico. In this endeavor, we present this document you are reading, accompanied with a list of expenses (available upon request), so that any organization, social movement, or personalities with good hearts, who are friends to our struggle, may collaborate with us and take on as your own our struggle to break the silence of our words that aim to defend our territories, our liberty, our dignity and autonomy.

If you are able to contribute to our efforts to bring our delegation of Venezuelan indigenous brother and sisters in resistance please contact:

Cristian Guerrero- guerrero(@)riseup.net
www.risingtidenorthamerica.org

Press Release from the Central Bank of Cuba

As is widely known, in late 2004, Cuba had to take measures to substitute the Cuban Convertible Peso for the dollar in monetary circulation, with the goal of frustrating the perfidious attempt by the United States government to prevent dollars in cash that had arrived in Cuba via completely legal channels from being utilized to pay for part of our imports of goods and services.

At the time, it was extensively explained how the U.S. government was bringing pressures to bear against the Swiss Bank UBS to prohibit it from carrying out its normal business with Cuba. That attempt was based exclusively on the terror being spread throughout the United States with its proclaimed policy of “you’re either with us or against us.”

As has occurred throughout all of these years, the actions of our enemies were defeated on that opportunity, as well: the dollar, the symbol of their imperial power, was humiliatingly expelled from Cuba; or commercial and financial relations continued to expand, and the credibility and respect for our country and its financial institutions are growing every day.

It should be added that based on that experience, our country’s far-sighted policy has been to substantially increase the use of other currencies in our international transactions, given that we are persuaded that the irresponsible materialistic U.S. policy, which has led it to fall into unsustainable fiscal and commercial deficits and placed its own currency in crisis, and the tendency for its gradual depreciation is now irreversible.

An example of how times have changed for the dollar is that at this moment, a simple statement by the president of the Central Bank of China regarding the composition of its reserves by currency type is enough to make the dollar depreciate, as occurred very recently.

It should not be forgotten that China today possesses the largest amount of monetary reserves on the planet (more than $1 billion dollars), four times more than those of the United States; hence, any comment by the Central Bank of China that is interpreted as an intention to reduce the amount of dollars in its reserves can have a negative impact on that currency.

To the great discomfort of the United States, the fate of its currency now depends – among other factors – on what is said in China. That is the fragility of the dollar at this time.

In the specific case of the Swill bank UBS and subsequently of another bank from that same country, Credit Suisse, an unfortunate subordination to the orders of the empire took place, providing an irrefutable example of how the United States imposes its laws in an extraterritorial manner, and decides who can or cannot do business with the institutions of other nations that are supposed to be free and sovereign.

In the case of UBS, coercion and blackmail may also be involved, given that an EFE news agency report dated Oct. 29, 2005 indicated that certain branches of that bank participated in the United States “food for oil” program imposed on Iraq, and according to investigations, at least five Swiss businesses paid the Iraqi government some $1 million each to win contracts in that country within that program. This was revealed to U.S. authorities, who were conducting the aforementioned investigations, and extraordinarily weakened their ability to act independently of the United States, even when they see themselves obliged to sacrifice their professional ethics, even by lying.

It should be added that, according international media reports, UBS was a generous donor to the election campaigns of Bush and his rival, John Kerry, which confirms its desire to win the complacence of the U.S. government no matter which party is in power.

More recently, the Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung published an article last Sunday in which it was justly noted that in Cuba’s case, there are no international sanctions but that nevertheless, the two aforementioned Swiss banks had broken off their business with our country.

This article said, among other things:

“In the case of Cuba, which has no international sanctions and is not in conflict with the organizations of the United Nations, the Cubans are boycotted by one country alone: the United States of America.”

Questioned by the press, on November 14, both banks offered the following explanation to the Swiss newspaper Le Temps:

“UBS is explaining its decision due to the high costs of monitoring respect for and conformity with the regulations for dealing with clients from the communist island. For Credit Suisse, ‘Cuba is one of the sensitive countries,’ the bank’s spokesman said, without expanding on what that means.”

In the same article, there are statements by Carlo Lombardini, business lawyer for the Geneva Bar Association, in which he says “Both Swiss banks are influenced by the U.S. viewpoint of the world. The cessation of transactions with Cuba is one of the consequences.”

Finally, we must ask: Who decides which countries are “sensitive” or not? And within what parameters is that classification based?

Or could it be that nobody knows that 50% of all the money-laundering in the world is done in the United States? Shouldn’t this be taken into account by the aforementioned banks in considering that the United States is a truly “sensitive” country with respect to acting in accordance with the laws of its financial system?

The answer is very simple: the actions of these two Swiss banks have nothing to do with respect for the law or precautions in their banking transactions. They are simply acts of submission to the United States, which they do not dare to admit.

Fortunately, there are few institutions like UBS or Credit Suisse that humiliatingly subordinate themselves to the United States, and there is a growing number of agencies and countries that are not disposed to blindly allying themselves with an empire whose repeated failures in the last few weeks are just the tip of the iceberg of its irreversible decadence.

(Translated by Granma International)

Crimethinc produces Oaxaca poster

FOR THE MEXICAN PEOPLE! AGAINST THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT! "The Mexican government will only spare the lives of the freedom fighters of Oaxaca if we make it clear that we are watching and will make them answer for their actions."

FOR THE MEXICAN PEOPLE!
AGAINST THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT!

"The Mexican government will only spare the lives of the freedom fighters of Oaxaca if we make it clear that we are watching and will make them answer for their actions."

A summarized timeline of recent events in Oaxaca is now available in poster form in time for solidarity actions and awareness projects scheduled for November 20th. Download and distribute!

http://www.crimethinc.com/downloads/oaxaca.html

Uruguay's ex-president arrested

Former Uruguayan President Juan Maria Bordaberry has been arrested in connection with four political killings during military rule in the 1970s.

The former foreign minister, Juan Carlos Blanco, has also been detained.

The two men are accused of involvement in the killing of two congressmen and two left-wing militants in 1976.

Elected in 1971, Mr Bordaberry went on to govern with military leaders, closing congress and banning parties, before being ousted himself in 1976.

As civilians, Mr Bordaberry and Mr Blanco are not protected by an amnesty passed after the end of military rule in 1985.

Mr Bordaberry presented himself to the authorities at the central prison in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, on Friday, a day after his judge ordered his arrest.

He and Mr Blanco, also now in custody, are accused of involvement in the abduction and killing of two lawmakers, Zelmar Michelini and Hector Gutierrez, who had fled the military dictatorship, and two rebels, William Whitelaw and Rosario Barredo.

Secret co-operation

The politicians were kidnapped from their homes in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires in May 1976.

Their bullet-riddled bodies were found several days later along with those of the two guerrillas.

Some 180 Uruguayans were killed during military rule, many of them in neighbouring Argentina.

Human rights groups say the killings were the result of secret co-operation between the military governments in power at the time in Uruguay and Argentina.

The current left-wing government of President Tabare Vazquez has made the investigation of human rights abuses committed by the Uruguayan military a major priority.

Letter to President Fox from UC Berkeley scholars

October 27th, 2006

Sr. Vicente Fox Quesada

Presidente de la Republica de México
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos Casa Miguel Alemán
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850
Distrito Federal, México

Mr. President Fox,

As citizens of Mexico and the World, concerned about social justice and the respect of human rights, we respectfully request that you and your administration resolve the current conflict in Oaxaca through peaceful and rational means.

From California, we watch the events in Oaxaca with deep concern. We are worried by the multiple recent attacks by armed groups on the barricades of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca; we are disturbed by the current contradictory repression by the Preventive Federal Police and the military presence in the state to silence those who protest against repression and the conditions of state terror maintained by the government of Oaxaca.

We believe it is not possible to talk about the “reestablishment of the rule of law” in the context of actions by “porros” and paramilitaries at the service of the state government and the violation of human rights. As academics, representatives of social organizations, parents and citizens fighting for social justice, we understand the importance of returning to school and the reestablishment of social peace. We believe that this can only be achieved through dialogue and negotiations, and not through the violent repression of a civil and peaceful movement whose complaints have the wide support of the Oaxacan society and reflect the economic, political and social backwardness of the state.

Taking into consideration article 39 of the Mexican constitution, which establishes that “the people have the unalienable right to alter and modify the form of their government at any time,” we do not understand why the governor of this state is supported through violent means, while the state demonstrates democratic deficiencies, institutional voids and social backwardness. During his mandate, this governor killed more than 39 social fighters including Brad Will, an American independent news reporter, and jailed more than 200 community organizers. He also rerouted thousands of millions of pesos destined for public health, housing, and education, into the political campaign of his presidential candidate, the construction of his mansions and the support and backing of his business. We do not understand the rational and humanitarian logic that defends this untouchable authoritarianism, this shared corruption, this celebrated imposition and gangsterism as a style of government.

Thus, we request the following:

• The immediate withdrawal of the Mexican army and the Preventive Federal Police.
• The release of all political prisoners.
• Justice for those killed and the immediate apprehension and punishment of those responsible for the murders.
• The immediate departure of Governor Ulises Ruiz from his post, as per the wish of the Oaxacan society.
• Education as means toward peace.
• An immediate response to our demands by the Mexican government.

We ask that the federal government act with logical coherence. Order that is imposed by force can only be ephemeral. In its heightened level of awareness, the global community is no longer willing to accept unsubstantiated talk and double standards, but demands that authority walk the talk and teach through example rather than words.

Sincerely,


1 Francisco Ramos Stierle, estudiante de doctorado en Astrofísica, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
2 Dr. José María Rabasa, jefe del departamento de Español y Portugués, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
3 Dr. Manuel Callahan, profesor departamento de Ethnic Studies, Humboldt State University.
4 Adrian Carrasco Zanini, a nombre del Media Studies Program, New College of California
5 Dr. Ignacio Valero, profesor de humanidades, California College of the Arts..
6 Alejandro Reyes Arias, estudiante de doctorado en Literatura Latinoamericana, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
7 Carlos Bazúa Morales, Estudiante de doctorado en Antropología, Universidad de California en Merced.
8 Dr. Alex Saragoza, profesor departamento de ethnic studies, Universidad de California en Berkeley
9 Dr. Estelle Tarica, Associate Professor Español y Portugués, Chair, Latin American Studies Program, Universidad de California en Berkeley
10 Heriberto Avelino, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
11 Dr. Louis Segal, Lecturer in Latin American Studies, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
12 Alan Jose, estudiante de Doctorado en Español y Cine, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
13 Roberto Hernández, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
14 Dr. Milena Britto de Queiroz, profesora de Doctorado en Español y Portugués, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
15 Andrea Ramos Stierle, estudiante de Etnología, Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
16 Daniel Joseph Nemser, estudiante de doctorado en Literatura, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
17 Adriana Cruz-Manjarrez, Universidad de California Los Ángeles.
18 Concepción Corona Vázquez. Ciudad de México.
19 Dr. Victor Ramos Plascencia. Ciudad de México.
20 Magalí Rabasa, estudiante de doctorado Estudios Culturales, Universidad de California en Davis.
21 Dr. Robert McKee Irwin, Associate Professor departamento Español, Universidad de California en Davis.
22 Nefertiti Kelley-Farias, Media Coord./AssistDeputy Director, California-Mexico Health Initiative, California Policy Research Center, University of California Office of the President.
23 Camila Piñeiro Harnecker, estudiante de maestría en Estudios Latinoamericanos, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
24 Terry Kelley Farias, estudios Latinoamericanos, Universidad de California en Berkeley. Integrante de Ideas del Cambio A.C. Mexico. Representante de la Comunidad para Monument Community Partnership en Concord, California.
25 Carina Vance, estudiante de maestria en Salud Publica, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
26 Anna Zalik, Ciriacy Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow in Natural Resource Studies, Departmento de Geografía, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
27 Dr. Leandro Colling, professor do departamento de Comunicação da Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brasil
28 Veronica Montes, estudiante de doctorado en sociologia de la Universidad de California en Santa Barbara
29 Agustin Palacios, estudiante de doctorado en Estudios Etnicos Universidad de California en Berkeley.
30 Dr. Diana Pei Wu, Environmental Science, Policy & Management, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
31 Mark Healey, profesor de historia, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
32 Orlanda Azevedo, Lectora de Portugues, Universidad de California en Berkeley
33 Dr. Sirena Pellarolo, Profesora California State, University Northridge
34 Valeria Brabata González, estudiante de maestría en políticas públicas, Goldman School of Public Policy, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
35 María del Carmen Arjona Camacho, estudiante de la Maestría en Salud Pública, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
36 Oscar A. Rosas Jaimes, estudiante de doctorado en Ingeniería de Control, UNAM. Profesor Visitante en U.C. Berkeley.
37 Ilse Ruiz Mercado, estudiante de doctorado en Sistemas de Ingeneria Civil y Ambiental, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
38 Layda Negrete, estudiante en el Programa Doctoral de Politicas Publicas, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
39 Daniel Lebrija, Instituto Multicultural, Berkeley, California.
40 Paola Reyes, estudiante de bachillerato en psicología, Wellesley College, California.
41 Natalia Brizuela, profesora de literatura latinoamericana, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
42 Jeremias Zunguze, estudiante de maestría en Literatura Luso-Brasileña, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
43 Ernesto Tejeda Yeomans, estudiante de maestria en Estructuras, Universidad de Califormia en Berkeley.
44 Lilia Aleman Ramos, estudiante de doctorado, Universidad de CAlifornia en Riverside.
45 Elizabeth Sáenz-Ackermann, estudiante de maestría en Estudios Latinoamericanos, Universidad Estatal de San Diego, California.
46 Juan Jose Fraire Zamora, estudiente de doctorado en Evolucion, Ecologia y Biologia de Organismos, Universidad de California Riverside.
47 Heidy Sarabia, Estudiante de Doctorado, Sociologia, Universidad de Califormia en Berkeley.
48 Andrea González,Estudiante de doctorado en Antropología, Research Scholar en Universidad de California Santa Barbara
49 Dr. Herve Bouy, Postdoc en el departamento de Astronomía de Universidad de California en Berkeley.
50 FRENTE POR LA DEMOCRACIA EN MEXICO, San Francisco, California:
51 Miguel Robles, Comité Defensa del Voto, San Francisco, California.
52 Renee Saucedo, La Raza Centro Legal, San Francisco Day Labor Program, California.
53 Frank Martin del Campo, Consejo Laboral para el Avance Latinoamericano, San Francisco, California.
54 Al Rojas, Frente de Mexicanos en el Exterior, Sacramento, California.
55 Maria Ceballos, Coalicion Primero de Mayo, San Francisco, California.
56 Jose Sandoval, Voluntarios de la Comunidad, San Jose, California.
57 Maria Cristina Gutierrez, Compañeras del Barrio, Barrio Unido por una Amnistia Incondicional, San Francisco, California.
58 Alfonso Gutierrez Mendez, Frente Amplio Progresista, Los Angeles, California
59 Sabas Castellanos, Frente indigena de Organizaciones Binacionales, Coordinacion del Norte de California.
60 Antonio Ramirez, Organizacion Comite de apoyo al movimiento de los pueblos populares de Oaxaca, Santa Rosa, California.
61 Francisco Herrera, Trabajo Cultural Caminante, San Francisco, California.
62 Evelyn Barragan, Colectivo Chale, Santa Rosa, California.
63 Luis Magaña, Trbajadores Agricolas de California, Stockton, California.
64 Ted Lewis, Director del Programa de Derechos Humanos de la Organizacion Global Exchange.
65 Dra. Leslie Yerington
66 Patricia Algara, estudiante de maestria en Arquitectura de Paisajes, Universidad de California en Berkeley.
67 Prof. Nélida B. von Müller, Profesional Principal del Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Técnica de la Rep. Argentina.
68 Jorge Colaizzo, English Learner Prgram Resource Teacher, Mt. Diablo Unified School District, Concord, California.
69 Alfredo Montaña Barbano, estudiante de doctorado en Astrofísica, Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica Óptica y Electrónica, Puebla, México.
70 Daniel Pérez Becker, Estudiante de doctorado en Física, Universidad de Califormia en Berkeley.

Oaxaca’s APPO Forms Permanent Government, Announces Escalation of Resistance

by Nancy Davies
Commentary from Oaxaca
November 14, 2006

3,000 Delegates Meet in the Midst of State Repression and Reorganize for the Struggle Ahead

Three thousand Oaxaqueños responded to the first call of the Asamblea Popular de Pueblos de Oaxaca (Popular Assembly of the People’s of Oaxaca, or APPO) on Friday, November 10, to forge a new constitution for Oaxaca. The APPO sprang into life in the two days following the attempted eviction of striking teachers from their zocalo encampment on June 14, 2006. It has guided the social movement in Oaxaca since then, and now self-dissolves in favor of a permanent structure of government which includes an executive and legislative branch. The provisional directorship dissolved on formally initiating the work of the constitutive congress.

The new organ is the State Council of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (CEAPPO, in its Spanish initials). It consists of 260 representatives of all the seven regions of Oaxaca. Forty seats were assigned to the democratic teachers union. The CEAPPO also includes merchants, students, bus and taxi drivers, unions, women, non-governmental organizations, political parties and social groups. Honorific spaces were reserved for the political prisoners. All members of CEAPPO have the same rights and obligations.

Between 800 and 1000 (depending on sources) delegates from neighborhoods and barricades, political and social organizations joined arrivals from the seven regions of the state. Another 100 invited persons joined them, wearing yellow guest badges. The sixty or so national and international press people who also showed up were not permitted into the working sessions headed by members of APPO’s provisional directors, which include Flavio Sosa Villavicencio, Zenén Bravo Castellano, Rosendo Ramírez Sánchez and Marcos Leyva Madrid. Zenén Bravo was selected as president of the council. The men were nominated by a plenary, along with two vice-presidents and four recorders.

The meetings were held in the auditorium of the Hotel Magesterio, which was also the venue for the meeting with Delegado Zero of the Other Campaign when the Zapatistas visited Oaxaca last February.

CEAPPO has formed in the face of the extreme repression currently underway by the governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, who operates both through his PRI and paid henchmen and police in civilian clothes. The spirit of the CEAPPO is revolutionary, in a pacific, democratic and humanistic stance which is openly anti neoliberal and based on the traditional people power shown in usos y costumbres (“uses and customs”), a method of governing which is open and face to face. Ample provisions for recall of officials, referenda and plebiscites are included in the form of the council.

In content, CEAPPO supports economic social justice, equality of persons, respect for differences, respect for the rights of women, respect for indigenous people and their autonomy, and development in benefit of the peoples of Oaxaca with high concern for sustainability and renewable resources.

The gathered constitutive congress met for three days. On Friday the work began on the registration of delegates from different organizations and community leaders, as well as participants on the barricades which the APPO designed after June 17. Registration took the whole day Friday, and so little time was left for work sessions that the meting adjourned.

At the initial meeting of the first night’s constitutive council, which was heavily dominated by men, the women present protested vigorously. Ultimately it was decided that a minimum of 30 percent of the permanent council will be women. The sessions were all lively, with booing down of objectionable suggestions and cheers for good ones – participative democracy.

On Saturday, some 600 delegates defined the statues, the declaration of principles and the program of action for the new body as well as electing the permanent directors who will function in a role akin to an executive department.

Working Sunday and throughout the night, by dawn the congress had elaborated its new plan of action, which includes continuing the struggle to unseat the governor Ulises Ruiz. The departure of Ruiz is “not negotiable.” Activities were outlined, such as putting up more blockades, and renewing the mobile brigades. This has to take place within the uncertainty of the occupying forces of Federal Preventive Police (PFP), who may or may not be withdrawn, and with the dirty war underway.

The Oaxacan movement will also send a delegation to Mexico City on November 20 to participate in the protest of former presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but only as a symbolic expression of the struggle for democracy. The APPO also agreed to protest the inauguration of Felipe Calderon if URO doesn’t leave before December 1.

At the first meeting, on Friday, the APPO reiterated, “The conditions don’t exist for a return to classes.” Nevertheless, about 70 percent of teachers are returning. Some remain in the encampment in Mexico DF. It is expected that returns will be phased in during next week , with the avowed purpose of teaching about what happened in Oaxaca and the popular movement. While URO remains in power, this maybe very dangerous work.

While the congress was gathering for its first day of meetings, the zocalo was occupied by the Federal Preventive Police, and the tourist area was occupied by the APPO and teachers who won’t return to classes while danger exists. During the time period of November 1 to November 10, about 49 students and APPO leaders were snatched off the street without warrants by men in civilian clothing who drove unmarked automobiles. Among the apprehended were two minors. Civil rights violations perpetrated by the government included entering private homes without warrant to arrest the highly visible people of the APPO and the teachers.

Although Human Rights organizations demanded to know where and who was being held, or an account for the dead, it was not offered.

Seeking safety, the most visible of the APPO and teachers threatened asked for sanctuary within the church and were granted it by the church official Wilfredo Meyran, who a day later was overridden by the bishop of Oaxaca, Jose Luis Chavez Botello. The bishop, in a news conference, declared that the church was devoted to the kingdom of heaven and could not get involved in earthly politics. Meyran is a long-time ally of former bishop of Chiapas Samuel Ruis, and appeared with him when Ruiz was in Oaxaca in support of the APPO.

University classes were scheduled to resume on Monday, but many did not due to the violent conditions around the university campus. Some professors decided it wasn’t safe; some students made the same decision. At the same time, the static blocking of Radio Universidad continued, and the blockade of University City was maintained, so that in effect the information coming from the APPO was unavailable. The radio broadcasters were unable to leave University City for fear of their lives, and remained, living inside the autonomous area.

Radio Ciudadano, also known as Radio Patito, continued broadcasting names of the movement adherents as well at those of teachers, with suggestions to capture or harm them. This station is generally regarded as supported by the PRI government. The names of the Radio Universidad broadcasters are well known and have been made public. Human rights protests to prevent the pro-government station from issuing threats have been ignored. By the end of the week, November 10, the Radio Universidad signal was completely blocked.

At virtually the same time, a nationwide National Assembly, modeled after the APPO, is being constructed. The national convention of state delegates will take place in Mexico City on the 18th and 19th of November. It will analyze the national situation, the actual situation of the member assemblies, establish its own form and rules, and plan its national action. To date, about twelve states are expected to send delegates to the Asamblea Popular de Pueblos de Mexico, the APPM.

Although Ulises Ruiz in Oaxaca tries to portray in the mainstream media that all is returning to normal (the PFP boys eat popsicles while standing on guard blocking entry to the zocalo) my personal observation as your commentator is that the movement will remain active and resolute.

Community resistance defeats destructive mine and hydroelectric projects in the Ecuadorian Amazon!

Canadian based Corriente Resources and US Lowell Mineral Exploration forced to flee. Support needed!

Jimbitono is a small village located in the Oriente of Ecuador where the Northwest corner of the Amazon begins. The river Abanico flows through Jimbitono where for generations the people of Jimbitono have used the river. The traditional way of life of Jimbitono began to change in September of 2004 when a company called Hidroabanico arrived and started to build a hydroelectric plant on the Abanico destroying the tranquillity and radically altering the river. The water level has dropped drastically and the water temperature has changed, causing many native species to die.

In the middle of January, 2006 the Hydroelectric plant began to function in its first phase. The energy generated from the dammed river was sent via electrical cables 12km long to the city of Macas where it is sold outside of the jungle province to Kentucky Fried Chicken, Coca Cola, and PYCA, a plastics factory in the coastal city of Guayaquil.

Hidroabanico used fraudulent documents as well as intimidation and threats to coerce locals into ceding their land to the company.

The 2nd phase of the Hydroabanico plant, due to begin shortly, involves the construction of electrical towers from Jimbitono for hundreds of miles along a corridor of jungle passing through many mestizo as well as Shuar indigenous communities. This electricity would be destined to be used in the mines run by Canadian Company Corriente Resources, as well as American Company Lowell Mineral Exploration, companies responsible for vast environmental destruction in the Amazon, as well as repeated human rights abuses and exploitation of workers.

On the night of August 29th, 2006, before this 2nd phase could begin, the people of Jimbitono blockaded the road leading to the Hidroabanico and began an indefinite strike occupying the water tubes of the Plant, effectively shutting it down. The company responded by hiring armed guards and calling in the police and government officials.

However as news of the struggle in Jimbitono spread, to the mining centers of the south as well as the campesino and indigenous communities along the corridor to be used to transport the electricity, the strike began to grow. Throughout the provinces of Morona Santiago and Zamora Chinchipe roads were blocked and mining installations were seized by enraged locals. A local coalition was formed by the communities in resistance to the project and the Shuar Indigenous Federation gave Lowell Mineral Exploration an ultimatum to leave their territories by November 1st.

By November 7th the entire province was paralyzed by the strike and three mining camps had been seized by the local population.

As the strike grew the repression began. On November 4th Corriente Resources called for a counter march in the province of Zamora Chinchipe in an attempt to sabotage the provincial assembly of communities in resistance. The counter march provoked confrontations with members of the assembly who were physically attacked. Police intervened using tear gas.

On the 9th of November the people of Pangui (in the North of Zamora Chinchipe) began a long march to the Mirador mine (owned by Corrientes Resources), the largest copper mine in Ecuador. There are currently plans in the works to construct a viaduct from Mirador to the coastal port of Machala in the Pacific (some 200 miles crossing the Andes). This project will cause massive devastation in the region. During the march the participants were attacked with rocks by a contingent of locals in the pay of Corriente Resources. At 2am the following morning they were attacked again, this time by 40 masked individuals armed with dynamite and fire arms. Approximately 15 marchers were injured in this attack. One of the attackers was detained by the protesters. This detainee gave the marchers information that the company was behind the attack.

Despite the repression the communities in resistance were able to keep the military from intervening in the strike, and despite national media ignoring the strike and local radio calling strikers delinquents, and terrorists, the strike continued to enjoy much support throughout the area.

Because of the determined resistance government officials agreed to a public meeting in Jimbitono, November 12th, with spokespeople from all the communities involved in the strike. The result of this meeting was a signed agreement which called for the immediate termination of the 2nd phase of the Hidroabanico project, the termination of the electrical corridor, the suspension of Corriente Resources mining activities in the area, and the start of negotiations to declare Morona Santiago as an ecological and touristic province. The agreement also states that the government will not take repressive actions against the participants in the strike.

Despite this apparent victory Corriente Resources, Lowell Mineral Exploration and other transnational companies continue to have a heavy influence in Ecuador and the Amazon region. It is important to put pressure on these companies to insure that human and workers rights violations do not continue to occur and that the environmental devastation for profit will not happen with out resistance.

Below are contacts for Corriente Resources based in Vancouver, Canada. Let them know they can not continue destroying the environment and traditional communities for profit.

Corriente Resources Inc.
520-800 W. Pender St.
Vancouver, BC V6C 2V6
CEO & Director: Kenneth (Ken) R. Shannon
President: Thomas (Tom) E. Milner
Phone: 001-(604) 687-0449
Fax: 001-(604) 687-0827
E-mail: copper@corriente.com

www.amoryresistencia.blogspot.com

Nicaragua says force will be used against squatters

Nicaraguan authorities said Friday they will continue using force against squatters who take over private land, a day after police evicted a group from property outside the capital.

Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to force about 200 people from 70 hectares (175 acres) of land east of Managua, and arrested five, Deputy National Police Commander Cesar Cuadra said.

The incident came several days after elections that returned Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega to the presidency for a second term after several defeats.

Local television said the squatters insulted the police and said that they were sorry they had backed the leftist Ortega.

Cuadra said removing the squatters was within the law and that the owner, identified as Maritza Salinas Lacayo, had filed legal action.

After Ortega lost power in 1990, police took several similar actions, recovering private property that had been confiscated by the Sandinistas.

Ortega had promised during his campaign this time around that there would be no further government confiscations or takeovers by squatters.

Blanca Buitrago, leader of a group of thousands of people who lost property to government confiscations during the decade of Sandinista rule, told The Associated Press that Ortega's promise "gives us some relief."

"We hope he keeps his word," she said. "There are still thousands of unresolved cases of confiscated property owned by Nicaraguans and foreigners, including many Americans."

The U.S. government has conditioned aid to Nicaragua each year on return of land taken from Americans or payment for it.

Managua Mayor Dionisio Marenco urged squatters to stop the takeovers and said he hopes Ortega's government will give the city money to buy land to be distributed to thousands of Nicaraguans.

Massacre in Chiapas: Six Women, Three Men, Two Children, Assassinated in Montes Azules

Today, Monday, November 13, presumed paramilitaries committed a massacre in the Montes Azules jungle region of Chiapas, killing nine indigenous women and men and two children.

The assassinated, according to a hand-written document received by Narco News from inside Zapatista civilian communities in the region, are:

* Marta Pérez Pérez

* María Pérez Hernández

* María Nuñez González

* Petrona Nuñez González

* Pedro Nuñez Pérez

* Eliver Benítez Pérez

* Antonio Pérez López

* Dominga Pérez López

* Felicitas Pérez Parcero

* Noilé Benítez (8 años)

* A recently born infant yet to be baptized

The details of the massacre, in a very isolated area, far from urban and media centers, are still sketchy, but the warning signs that violence on this scale was brewing in the region have been known by state and federal officials all along. They were specifically warned by human rights organizations last July and August, but in lieu of taking positive action, their police and other agencies merely aggravated the problems since then.

The dead lived and worked in the Ejido Dr. Manuel Velasco Suarez II, known as Viejo Velasco Suárez, a farming community established in 1984 through an agreement with the Mexican government. They and their previous generations had lived in other parts of the Lacandon Jungle that, in 1972, had been declared a “nature preserve.” Then, as now, the ecological imprimatur turned out to have more to do with looting Mother Nature than protecting her: the creation of the Montes Azules biosphere served to grant the Mexican government monopoly control over exploitation of hardwoods and other natural resources. As part of the environmental show and simulation, 66 families of the Lacandon indigenous group – a population that today numbers in the hundreds, descendants of Maya peoples of the Yucatan Peninsula that had emigrated to Chiapas centuries ago – were declared sole stewards of more than 600,000 hectares of rainforest, but on the condition that they cede economic rights to the government over the land.

Since then, members of other Maya indigenous peoples – primarily Tzeltal and Chol – have lived under siege by the government, its police agencies, its Armed Forces, the Lacandones, and other communities of Tzeltales (from the town of Nueva Palestina) and Choles (from the town of Frontera Corrazal) that had allied with and benefited from the deal. The remaining indigenous communities in the region found themselves under permanent attack since then. Conflicts in the zone led to the 1984 agreement that created Viejo Velasco Suarez and other communally farmed communities, protected, supposedly, by law: Flor de Cacao, Nuevo Tila, Ojo de Agua and San Jacinto Lacanja, all in the same region as the world-renowned ancient Maya temples and ruins at Yaxchilán, near the gigantic Usamacinta River that is Mexico’s border with much of Guatemala.

The eleven deaths in today’s massacre come – as massacres often do – at a time when the Mexican federal government has returned to the bad old days of large scale repression (in Atenco last May, and in Oaxaca at present). At times like this, paramilitaries and police agencies are emboldened by the signals sent from the top, and increase their historic aggressions against those – especially indigenous – communities perceived as being in the way of economic interests.

The federal government of Vicente Fox and his Interior Minister Carlos Abascal (“the Butcher of Oaxaca”) was warned as recently as this year about the time bomb of violence threatening Viejo Velasco Suarez and the other communities in the Montes Azules regions.

Early Warnings

On July 19 of this year, the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center issued an alert titled “Threats of Eviction and Harrassment Against Indigenous Peoples in the Lacandon Jungle.” Known as “the Frayba Center,” this organization was founded by former Catholic Bishop Samuel Ruíz and is respected throughout the world as thorough and honest in its work.

The human rights organization alerted that it had received reports that:

“…on Saturday, July 14, the (state of Chiapas) Public Security police installed itself near the community of Ojo de Agua in El Progreso, threatening to violently evict the families of that community, families that are defending their right to the land as indigenous peoples… We who live in San Jacinto Lacanja, Flor de Cacao and Viejo Velasco are also threatened with eviction.”

The Frayba Center stated in its July 19 alert:

“In the opinion of Frayba this is an historic problem with a series of irregularities and clumsiness by institutions and functionaries that disregard previous agreements, manipulate parties to the conflict generating more problems, threaten violent eviction to force the communities and organizations to ‘sit down and negotiate” or don’t understand the commitments assumed during negotiations with the communities in dispute.”

The Frayba Center demanded that government authorities take measures to “guarantee the personal security and integrity of the families” of the four threatened indigenous communities, that they respect the 1984 agreement and others that granted them their lands, and that international treaties guaranteeing such protections for indigenous peoples be respected.

A few weeks later, representatives of that organization, together with a delegation of North Americans from Global Exchange, as well as the NGOs Maderas del Pueblo (“Hardwoods of the People”) and Xi’ Nich, went on a fact-finding mission to the afflicted communities. Global Exchange issued a detailed seven page report, which explains much of the background history of the conflict and, also, interestingly, the difficulties and obstacles presented to their attempts to visit the communities.

The report concluded:

“While the exact reasons for the exclusion of these four communities from the land legalization process are unclear, geographical and political factors offer an important clue. Three of the communities­Flor de Cacao, San Jacinto Lacanja, Ojo de Agua el Progreso­are located in a terrain where there are still precious woods that the Lacandon community wants to exploit, according to Miguel Angel Garci a from Maderas del Pueblo. They are also on the banks of the Usumacinta River, one of the most important sources of pristine drinking water in the region. “Plan Puebla-Panama,” the government’s proposal for economic “modernization” for the country, also contemplates the construction of hydroelectric dams on the Usumacinta. Additionally, many of the individuals who testified believe the reason that the Lacandon community and comuneros want the land for themselves is so they can develop it for tourism purposes, as the archaeological site of Yaxchilan is located nearby, and the Lacandon community engages heavily in the tourism business. The fourth community, Viejo Velasco, because of its affiliations with the EZLN, also is likely perceived by the Mexican government to be an impediment to the maximization of profit. Indeed, shortly after our visit to El Desempen o, government officials violently evicted the EZLN civilian support base community Chol de Tumbala that was similarly in the process of securing their land claims. Federal, state, and local government officials should take immediate steps to guarantee the integrity and safety of Ojo de Agua El Progreso, Flor de Cacao, San Jacinto Lacanja, and Viejo Velasco. These communities are entitled­under both the covenant of 1984 and the agreements reached at the Limonar roundtable­to land security. The local, state, and federal government should immediately take action to stop the threatened illegal evictions and restore the families who have fled to their lands, if those families wish. Fairness and justice demand nothing less.”

The international human rights organization sent its findings to Mexican president Vicente Fox, his Interior Minister Carlos Abascal, to Chiapas Governor Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía and various bureaucrats under each of them.

Instead of taking action to correct the wrongs, the state and federal governments set in motion the events – and gave signals that would be received as impunity by the opponents of these communities that have violently threatened them – that brought about, today, the massacre of eleven indigenous civilians.

Escalating Aggressions

According to a hand-written chronology of the events since then, received today by Narco News, authored by members of the afflicted communities, the aggressions against them increased after the Fox and Salazar governments were informed:

* September 19: “At 4:30 p.m. comuneros from Nueva Palestina came armed with machetes, rifles, shovels, pickaxes and stones.” They destroyed the home of one family. At 8 p.m. they shot bullets into a building where women and children slept.

* October 4: Comuneros from Nueva Palestina attacked two farmers in their bean field with guns, destroying the crops.

* October 8: Members of the government-allied Nueva Palestina community met and agreed to attack the inhabitants Viejo Velasco Suarez.

* October 9: The attack was carried out and the home of one family razed; that afternoon they kidnapped a community member who was “seriously wounded” in the altercation.

And in another handwritten document sent to Narco News, dated Saturday, November 11, community members explain that the comuneros from Nueva Palestina shut off their water supply, leading the community of Viejo Velasco Suarez to turn the water back on and expel eleven of the occupying comuneros from their community. The document contains the names and signatures of the 11 men expelled.

It says:

“We ask the Palestinas, the state and federal governments, to respect this agreement to cease the violence in both parts of our community. We hold the government responsible for anything that happens…

“On Wednesday, November 1, 2006, the Palestinas began to close the tap for piped water through today, Saturday, November 11 of this year. That is why the original groups of this community take the following action… we totally disassociate ourselves from the Palestina groups and we don’t want them to keep harassing us in this community of Viejo Velasco, where each one of them signs his agreement to leave and to never return so as not to cause more problems with the original residents.”

According to an email just received from the families of the dead:

“The aggressors have been residents of the community of Nueva Palestina, and in common with the sad occurrences of the Acteal Massacre (of December 22, 1997, also in Chiapas) the families of the victims confirm that there are now various police roadblocks put up around them.”

According to a communiqué tonight from Maderas del Pueblo, the attackers were from Nueva Palestina, and they came at dawn: “four subcomuneros from the aggressor group who came to the community strongly armed with intentions of violently evicting the families that lived there.”

Two days later, today, six women, three men, and two children from this afflicted community are dead. At press time, various human rights organizations and the Good Government Council in Roberto Barrios of the civilian bases of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN, in its Spanish initials), as well as the Other Journalism with the Other Campaign, are investigating the details of another massacre forewarned.

Marx Brothers Marxists

by Patrick Anderson
Oct 2, 2006

THE UNCOMFORTABLE DEAD
A Novel by Four Hands

By Paco Ignacio Taibo II and Subcomandante Marcos

Translated from the Spanish by Carlos Lopez
Akashic. 268 pp. Paperback, $15.95

A lot of strange stories have been circulating about the elusive Osama bin Laden, but none stranger than one put forward by a character in the Mexican novel "The Uncomfortable Dead." This fellow insists that the bin Laden we see on television is not the Saudi millionaire and purported evildoer at all. The man we see is, rather, a tall, gaunt taco vendor named Juancho who made his way to Burbank, Calif., where he stars in porn movies and also has been secretly hired by the Bush team to make "bin Laden" tapes they feed to the media for their own dark purposes. Poor Juancho is so clueless that he thinks he's "making commercials for turbans and field tents."

This theory -- which clearly merits an FBI investigation -- comes to us in a one-of-a-kind novel by veteran Mexican mystery writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II and Subcomandante Marcos, who leads a Zapatista movement in the Chiapas region of southeastern Mexico. On this side of the border, Marcos is best known from newspaper photos that show him masked, armed and defiant, but his countrymen also know him as a sometime man of letters. For years, when he hasn't been dodging government troops, he has written books, some political and one a novel for children.

We might have expected from these co-authors a fiery Marxist-Maoist manifesto, thinly disguised as fiction, but in fact the novel is more whimsical than political. The Zapatistas we meet are a dedicated but ragtag band of bumpkins who spend more time playing soccer and dominoes than striking blows against the empire. At best, the novel is a hoot, but at worst it's a mishmash of cornball humor and warmed-over revolutionary musings.

The authors write alternating chapters. One plot concerns the efforts of a low-key, pipe-smoking rebel commander called El Sup by his followers -- presumably Marcos's self-serving self-portrait -- to find a man named Morales who for years has bedeviled the rebels as spy and assassin. However, El Sup stays in the background as he sends an aging, semiliterate follower called Elías Contreras ("that's what El Sup named me . . . seeing as how I was so contrary") to Mexico City to search for the villain. The first person the old boy finds, however, is a male prostitute called Magdalena who turns tricks to finance a sex-change operation but is converted to the Zapatista cause. Later, Contreras encounters the one-eyed private-eye Héctor Belascoarán Shayne, hero of Taibo's previous novels, who has his own mystery to solve.

Belascoarán has a client who is receiving phone messages from a leftist friend who was killed by government agents more than 30 years earlier. The detective is seeking, with no great urgency, to learn the origin of these calls. The two plots merge when it becomes likely that it was the evasive Morales who murdered the leftist, who now may be speaking from the hereafter. If this summary suggests that the novel has a linear, logical nature, I have misled you. The mysteries of Morales and the phone calls vanish for long stretches as the authors digress on spiritual, social, cultural and political matters.

The most interesting digression is the one on the taco vendor who makes bin Laden tapes, but there is another in which a Zapatista explains that Wal-Mart has opened a store in Mexico so it can steal the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, which will prevent some enlightened extraterrestrials from landing and saving southeastern Mexico from McDonald's, Pizza Huts, Wal-Marts and other capitalist oppressors. I don't know if these stories qualify as magic realism or are simply inspired by good old Mexican locoweed, but they do have a weird fascination.

In other digressions, the authors make clear their admiration for Gustav Mahler and Glenn Miller, Veronica Lake and Angela Davis, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, and gay rights and women's liberation. They quote the poems of Pablo Neruda and Federico García Lorca, and praise their countrymen Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata and Benito Juárez, although their riff on Juárez ignores his heroic life and instead focuses on whether someone else is buried in his grave. When they turn to politics, the authors declare with passion that the rich and powerful own the world, that governments are corrupt and incompetent and that the little guy doesn't stand a chance -- all true enough, but not exactly breaking news. Hemingway, Orwell, Chaplin and others have delivered the message far more effectively -- which isn't to say it's not worth repeating.

In time the plot wanders back into view, the source of the unworldly phone calls is revealed, and the vile Morales is dealt with, but the authors make clear that justice, in a larger sense, remains elusive. They express their outrage at Mexico's Dirty War, which, old Elías Contreras explains, "means that it's secret, that they don't say it's on and they make like nothing's wrong, but it is and there's killing and disappearing and people displaced and a whole lot of misery for the screwed." The authors are aware that a ragged band of rebels in a desolate corner of Mexico isn't likely to change the big picture, but Contreras can still declare proudly, "Us Zapatistas won't give up and we won't sell out; what I mean is, we don't forget what we're fighting for, and that's why they need to defeat us any way they can." On the evidence of this book, Subcomandante Marcos is no more successful a novelist than he is a revolutionary, but give him credit: He's out there, boots on the ground, pen in hand, doing his thing.

MEXICAN STORIES:Subcomandante Marcos

Subcomandante Marcos
Zapatista Stories
translated by Dinah Livingstone.

Prose. 2001. 192 pages. ISBN 0904872 36 X. £8.95.
Subcomandante Marcos, the Zapatista leader, is one of Mexico's most brilliant contemporary writers. His work, usually posted on the internet, includes communiqués and a host of stories, that are colloquial and full of allusions; humorous and passionate; witty and tender. This translation into English (of a London kind) is colloquial too. It has tried to catch the author's sprightly speaking voice, avoiding over-reverent literalism and glum 'strugglese'. As Marcos says, 'We need to laugh a lot to create a new world, because if we don't, our new world will turn out square and it won't go round.'

Zapatista Stories is in three parts. First, stories of the beetle knight errant, Don Durito de la Lacandona, the Zapatista Don Quixote and a Mexican cousin of the bossy caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. Second comes old Antonio, Marcos's other mentor, with stories about the jolly, 'quarrelsome but wise' old Mayan gods. Lastly, there are the real lives of Zapatista children in the 'war against oblivion', ending with the long piece, The Devils of the New Century, that appeared in February 2001, just before the Zapatistas set out on their great march to Mexico City.

'This manages to be both an utterly charming book, and to convey a serious message... Definitely a great volume for anyone seeking an accessible introduction to Zapatista history and ideas -- including kids. Or equally for those already knowledgeable on Zapatismo and looking for a fresh look at the subject.' - Peace News

'A book that everyone who is not asleep will want to read and re-read. It might even wake a few of us up.' Ethical Record


Click for another extract from Part 3: 'Zapatista Children'

The Zapatistas' Other Campaign Hits Ciudad Juarez

In a visit replete with ironies, symbolisms and stirring messages, Subcomandante Marcos of Mexico's Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) came to Ciudad Juarez on the eve of the annual Days of the Dead celebrations. Arriving as part of the EZLN'S "Other Campaign," Marcos, who is also going by the name of Delegate Zero, met with local non-governmental organizations, indigenous groups, campesinos, students and U.S. supporters of the Other Campaign, some of whom traveled all the way from New York to show the legendary EZLN spokesman a video about the struggles of migrant workers in the Big Apple.

Launched in the months following the publication of the EZLN's Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, the Other Campaign is one step of an effort to unite Mexico's indigenous and popular movements into a big anti-capitalist left and transform the nation without recourse to arms or political parties.

After an initial round of meetings with farmer, neighborhood and urban indigenous groups, Marcos participated in a Nov. 1 protest at the Stanton Street Bridge between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas. Temporarily shutting down the crossing with a symbolic barricade of fertilizer sacks and a small coffin, the demonstration expressed solidarity with the Popular Assembly of the Oaxacan People (APPO)-led movement against the state government of Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz, as well as protesting the 700 miles of new border fences planned by the Bush Administration.

"It's only a wall to kill our people, just like the wall of the river and the desert that assaults them ... " Marcos charged. "Our friends cross only to work and not to do harm. In order to cross and work in the U.S., they're treated like they are terrorists." Quickly picking up on another theme, Marcos blasted the continued impunity surrounding the serial rape-murders of women in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua state. "We've also seen that there's no justice here in Ciudad Juarez. Young women are murdered without (anyone) ever knowing who the guilty ones were."

As Marcos was speaking, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency helicopter flashing a big Department of Homeland Security insignia swooped low over the crowd, snapping pictures and stirring up dust in protestor's faces. Briefly drowning out the Zapatista subcomandante's words, Marcos responded with defiant words that challenged the legitimacy of the border as well as the U.S. and Mexican governments. The occupants of the White House and Los Pinos will fall "one by one" predicted Marcos. As Delegate Zero was delivering his speech, fellow Zapatistas in Chiapas were shutting down state highways in support of the APPO.

The Disappeared

Outfitted in his usual military uniform and mask, Marcos shared the microphone with retired teacher Ernesto Ontiveros, a member of the International Association Relatives and Friends of Disappeared Persons and the father of a missing soldier. Marcos, who led EZLN fighters into battle against Mexican soldiers during the 1994 indigenous Maya uprising in southern Chiapas state, spoke after Ontiveros told the story of his son, Lt. Victor Hugo Ontiveros, who has been missing for 10 years.

Eyewitnesses have told Ontiveros that his son was kidnapped by an armed commando and whisked away in Ciudad Juarez on Sept. 2, 1996, never to return home. The young Ontiveros' disappearance was one of the first of the thousands of "levantones,” or forced disappearances, and murders tied to organized crime that have shaken Ciudad Juarez in recent years. Showing no let-up, in the week surrounding Marcos' visits alone, more than a dozen new kidnappings or gangland-style executions were reported in the local press.

Almost three presidents, numerous special prosecutors and wads of promises later, Ontiveros said he still has no peace of mind about what happened to his son. Grinning sarcastically, Ontiveros told Frontera NorteSur that the three most common words he keeps hearing from law enforcement officials are: "We're getting close." After Marcos' short speech, hundreds of demonstrators marched through Downtown Juarez, passing by camper unit 666 of the municipal police force. Marchers followed the Rio Bravo to the gates of the Alta Vista High School, where a second, impromptu protest was staged.

Halted at the school's entrance, some demonstrators, members of the press and even high school students trying to enter the school grounds were told by a security team headed by a tattooed, shade-wearing man that they could not pass without an official Other Campaign badge, even though participants were told before the march that no credentials were necessary unless video footage was going to be recorded.

Fresh from a protest against walls and eager to hear Marcos, shouts of "fascist" and "they're putting a wall between us and Marcos" emanated from the increasingly agitated crowd.

"This is a public school, you can't impede access," yelled Cipriana Jurado, the director of Ciudad Juarez's Center for Research and Worker Solidarity group. After a round of chanting, the security men finally relented and let the people onto the school grounds, proving that the mass protest tactics promoted by Marcos and the Zapatistas do indeed work.

Inside the School

Located about 30 feet from the Mexico-U.S. border, Alta Vista High School was an appropriate choice for the Other Campaign's meeting. Seeking shade from the rising fall sun, several students waiting to hear Marcos remarked how they liked the school because of its liberal arts orientation, emphasis on critical thinking and free-style dress code. But Alta Vista's student body has had a rough time this semester, according to the students. Hit by the past summer's floods, the school lost computers and thousands of books. Freudian, Marxian and literary classics were all destroyed, they reported. Starting classes several days late, students said they've had to cope without books and in-school access to computers.

Government pledges to replace the lost materials have yet to materialize, and low-income students must choose between eating lunch or spending 20 or 30 pesos in an Internet cafe to keep with assignments, said student Alejo La Rosa. "It's expensive. You don't eat that day," La Rosa quipped.

La Rosa said he and another student dipped into their own pockets in order to purchase a computer to brighten up the school atmosphere with music that's run out of the small in-house radio station operated by students. "This is our expression of gratitude to our school," he said. "We want this to be the best school. It's our school and we have to support it."

Inside the school, Marcos met privately with representatives of various non-governmental organizations from Mexico and the U.S., and he later heard a series of public presentations in the courtyard outside. Displayed in front of the meeting area were old black and white photos of young men and women, supposed "subversives" from Chihuahua state, who were picked up by Mexican security men during the 1970s Dirty War and whisked away into official oblivion, much like Lt. Victor Hugo Ontiveros was 20 years later.

Carefully taking notes while puffing away on his pipe, Marcos, a prolific poet and writer, heard emotional presentations from two women who recounted how they were victims of rape; a message appealing for action against femicide in Mexico from the imprisoned Colonel Aurora, or Gloria Arenas, of the Revolutionary Army of the Insurgent People (ERPI); denunciations of attempts to evict residents of the Lomas de Poleo colonia on Ciudad Juarez's outskirts, and the importance of culture in the "rebirth" of the border city.

Commerce and Comraderie

Representing a rainbow of causes and sub-cultures, campesinos, colorfully-dressed indigenous Raramui women, dread-locked drummers, Chicano movement veteranos, academics, feminists, humble nuns, camera-heavy reporters, old braceros and young students all gathered around the Sup, as he is nicknamed.

Leftist literature sellers were present, and long-haired vendors hawking EZLN t-shirts not unlike the tie-dye merchants who used to follow around the Grateful Dead on concert tours did a respectable business. A new magazine, Ala Siniestra, put out by the University Left Committee of the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez, was among the items available. Meanwhile, outside the school, agents from the Federal Preventive Police and other government agencies dutifully eyed the scene.

After the public meeting, Veronica Levya, the Ciudad Juarez representative of the Mexico Solidarity Network, commented that while it's still too early to assess the impact of events like the Other Campaign and the recently held Border Social Forum, mass gatherings of the type have the benefit of bringing together disparate groups which are often absorbed in their own day-to-day struggles.

The Other Campaign's Ciudad Juarez stop was just one stop in a long road trip that's taken Marcos and his supporters across Mexico. On the current leg of the tour, Marcos has visited indigenous groups, miners, fishermen and others in Baja California Norte and Sur, Sonora and Chihuahua. Mainstream print media coverage of the Other Campaign in Mexico has been extremely spotty, ranging from outright blackouts to brief, cursory mentions. Government reaction has been muted too, though one Ciudad Juarez news website quoted municipal government secretary Jorge Compean as calling Marcos "a clown." On the U.S. side of the Paso del Norte region, the El Paso Times ran a couple of stories while the Albuquerque Journal featured the Stanton Street Bridge protest as its banner headline story in one of its Nov. 2 editions.

* * *

Reprinted with permission from Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico

Mexico: PRD Threatens Marches

Mexico's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) has threatened to begin marches and road closures in Oaxaca on Nov. 13 in support of the People's Popular Assembly of Oaxaca's (APPO) demand that Oaxacan Gov. Ulises Ruiz resign, El Universal reported. PRD leaders expressed their unconditional support for the group's cause after holding meetings with APPO leaders. Marches are planned to take place Nov. 20 and Dec. 1 in Oaxaca if Ruiz does not step down.

Film on Che Guevara Awarded at Central American Festival

Nov 10

The Cuban film on Che Guevara titled "San Ernesto nace en la Higuera" won the Prize to the Best Foreign Documentary Film at the Central American Icaro Cinema and Video Festival, held in Guatemala.

The documentary film, directed by Cuban actress Isabel Santos and photographer Rafael Solís, features the legendary figure of Cuban-Argentinean guerrilla commander Ernesto Che Guevara and his presence at the Bolivian locality of La Higuera, where he was murdered.

Festival jury member María Rivera said the documentary shows the devotion of local people in the Bolivian locality for Che Guevara, PL reported.

More than 15 films are participating in the Central American film festival.

Majority of Chileans believe corruption is “widely spread”

Even when Chile figures as the least corrupt country in Latinamerica, the general perception among the Chilean population according to the latest public opinion surveys is that “corruption is widely spread”.

Transparency International in its latest “Corruption Perception Index” report made public this month ranks Chile 20 among the world’s 163 countries, ahead of Spain and at the same level as United States. The second best country in Latinamerica is Uruguay, ranked 28.

However following a recent scandal in the Sports Ministry involving “illegal funds” for certain distinguished names of the political system and which apparently the Chilean Executive tried to dilute by denying votes in Congress for an investigation committee, public opinion polls show that 61.2% of Chileans believe corruption is widely extended in the country.

Furthermore the poll contracted by the country’s main newspaper El Mercurio indicates that President Michelle Bachelet standing has been affected by the so called “Chiledeportes” scandal.

The survey also shows that 65% of those interviewed believe the announced Bachelet administration’s measures to address the issue are considered “insufficient” and there’s a strong reaction to the government’s decision not to name a Congressional investigation committee.

Apparently public opinion was also taken aback by the Interior Minister Belisario Velasco statement that the issue “is in the hands of the court and there’s no need for Congress to intervene”. This attitude had a significant impact following revelations from ruling coalition members’ claim that “Casa de la Moneda” (GH) was putting pressure not to let the issue be addressed by Congress, as the opposition was demanding.

Surprisingly however, instead of supporting the opposition’s stance that they will not discuss this year’s national budget until an investigation committee is named, 64.5% of those interviewed believe the Executive and the opposition Alianza should sit round a table and reach a political agreement to put an end to corruption actions, which the extended opinion, 63.8%, is that it has increased.

Apparently the opposition’s strategy to block the budget debate is equally condemned by 57% of interviews.

Another 41% admitted that corruption claims makes them think twice about leader and party allegiances.

The Opinion-El Mercurio public opinion poll was done November 10, by phone in metropolitan Santiago, interviewing 400 adults over 18 with a plus minus 5 points error margin. The “Chiledeportes” has been media headlines since October 21.

Eight mining licenses revoked in seven days

In seven days, Venezuela revoked eight mining licenses in southern Bolívar state, even though sources at the Ministry of Basic Industries and Mining claimed the move is not a government policy.

In October 30-November 6, Hugo Chávez' Government published in the Official Gazette a number of decrees banning mining activities in eight deposits in Bolivar state municipalities of Sifontes and Gran Sabana.

According to the decrees published on October 30-31 and November 1-6, the move came as a response to violations against some regulations, including tax payment, mandatory filing of both topographic blueprints for each mine and annual exploitation plans.

The Vice-Minister of Mining Iván Hernández Rojas on November 7 claimed that the decrees "are resolutions made in accordance with the laws in effect." Under said decrees, mining licenses were annulled for Inversiones Guatepereque, Minería Industrial Roraima, Venecia Explotación Minera Internacional, Minería Jaspe, Corpoaurífera, Tecno-Geo and Corporación Minera Nacional.

Licenses versus actions
Hernández warned, however, that the Government has plans to turn mining licenses into a sort of joint ventures similar to those already operating in the oil sector, with the Venezuelan state holding a majority stake.

No date has been set to complete such plans, but Hernández said the relevant steps will be made once lawmakers pass the Organic Law on Mining.

The Chair of the National Assembly Under-committee on Mining José Ramón Rivero would not indicate when the new legal framework would be set. But he hinted that the bill includes a proposal to create a National Mining Company to centralize mining in an autonomous institution. "The idea is to create a Pdvsa Mining Corporation, as those are the guidelines set by the Ministry of Basic Industries and Mining."

While in Venezuela there is a mining agency (Minerven), Hernández said the planned National Mining Company would be different to Minerven, as they are proposing a corporation that not only would keep surveillance on extraction, but also on sales and processing of each product, including the cut of diamonds.

The idea of the National Mining Corporation, however, involves a structure yet to be assembled and which is set for assessment at the National Assembly Under-committee on Mining.

New decrees revoking mining licenses in southern Venezuela
The Venezuelan Government on November 8 announced it revoked mining licenses to three companies that extracted gold and diamonds in southern Bolívar state, thus taking to 11 the number of mining licenses the Ministry of Basic Industries and Mining (Miban) has revoked over the last few days.

Since October 30, Hugo Chávez' administration has been publishing in the Official Gazette 11 decrees cancelling mining licenses that were in force for up to 14 years on 19,821 hectares located in the municipalities of Sifontes and Gran Sabana of Bolívar state.

José Mezzoni, president of the Federation of Workers of the Metallurgic, Mining and Mechanical Sectors and Related, as "an evil move the Government is making against mining businessmen and workers." However, the other side has another view of the situation.

The Ministry of Basic Industries and Mining claimed revocation of mining licenses is not a state policy intended to expel the private sector from gold and diamond deposits in Bolívar state. On November 8, the Vice-Minister of Mining, Iván Hernández Rojas, said his office is carrying out a "cleansing" process that is going to continue. In exchange, he promised new mining licenses would be issued.

"We have 24 agreements under review. We are clearing things up because some firms violated the rules, as they did not pay taxes or left the mines unexploited. But other licenses will be issued," Hernández stressed. "I have a list of 25 petitions we are considering. Over the next few days we are to grant other 18 licenses."

Against "large estates in mining"
Five months ago, former Minister of Ministry of Basic Industries and Mining Víctor Álvarez claimed that the Government's new mining policy was intended to nationalize the sector. Last May 25, at a news conference, Álvarez advocated "the creation of a temporary regime to replace the current mining licenses with joint ventures."

Such Government plans were meant to fight what they have called "large estates in mining." In this sense, Hernández claims that such plans do not involve removing the private sector from the mines.

Based on the latest figures, in Venezuela there are 760 mineral deposits under exploitation by private firms. This will not change, claims Hernández, but mining businesses will have to accommodate to new terms.

Venezuela has prevented investments in mines
Gilberto Sánchez, president of the Venezuelan Chamber of Mining Industries, acknowledged that some mining companies have run counter to the agreements they initialed with the Venezuelan Government, but warned that the current structure prevents investment in the extraction of minerals.

"There are agreements and licenses that have been abandoned and therefore the moves the Venezuelan State in such cases are provided under the current Law of Mines," he claims, adding that "on the other hands, there are many companies that have invested in good faith."

In a communiqué, Sánchez warned that "the State has not allowed a continuous flow of investments, as exploration permits are effective for one year only, and renovations are spasmodic."

Worrisome news from Oaxaca... not from an anarchist

http://mexfiles.blogspot.com

A crazy on the "Thorn Tree Mexico Message Board" always claims I'm an anarchist. Moi? He claimed this guy was too, so I figured he must have something worth saying.

The Rev. George Salzmann, OSFS a Catholic chaplain at Harvard, and emeritus professor of Physics at U. of Mass, Boston. He wrote a quick article for the Canadian anti-globalization and alternative media site, Global Reseach. Father Salzmann apologized for not footnoting as carefully as he normally does in academic articles, wanting to get the material out as soon as poossible.

Revving up the dirty war in Oaxaca

Under PFP ‘protection’, and with PFP participation, the combined level of the dirty war by the Oaxaca PRI contingent of Ulises Ruiz and the PFP mushroomed — so intolerably in fact that the church offered asylum to members of the popular movement because of the threats and the jump in the numbers of dead, arrested, and disappeared. Unfortunately (and predictably), it's not ‘just’ the state agents and allied paramilitaries who are doing the really dirty work.

There are people who were snatched by the PFP who haven’t even been identified, some of them seized at the most active large conflict area — the university campus,[3] where the radio station is located — on helicopters and not accounted for (according to some of the material I've read).[4] Most assuredly the PFP, or at least some of its ‘special forces’, is itself a terrorist organization.

I’m certain the so-called ‘counter terrorism’ operations discussed in the Narco News article by Diego Enrique Osorno [5] are being actively implemented by both Ulises Ruíz’s state and paramilitary agents, and by the highly-trained hit teams of the PFP, the latter undoubtedly led by officers trained at the School of the Americas. Terrorism against popular social movements is serious business for repressive governments, whether in Central America, Mexico, Iraq, Palestine, Colombia, or wherever.

posted by Richard Grabman

The APPO Constitutional Congress runs from November 10-12. Here is a report of the first day

From November 10-12 the APPO held its Contitutional Congres. Its goal was to choose a leadership and fortify the direction of the organization in the most democratic way. The congress was held in an indoor stadium. The Provisional Diectors sat at a table at the front. Then there were hundreds of people in chairs and the rest in the bleachers. Along the walls were banners of APPO in action. They showed young people with molotovs, women stringing out barbed wire, people with slingshots and bandanas over theor faces or playing the guitar, a woman with a baby facing the riot cops.

The APPO organization was formed very quickly. On May 22 the 70,000 teachers in Oaxaca went on strike. They soon set up an encampment in the central square. Oaxaca has a long history of struggle and many groups supported the teachers. The people marched in solidarity with the teachers on June second and seventh in the first two Mega marches. On June 14, at 4:00 am the teachers were evected violently by the police and one teacher was killed. People responded and on June 16th the Mega March grew to over 500,000 people. The APPO (Popular Assembly of the Oaxacan People) began to form union by union and town by town. On the 27th of June the Provisional Directors were chosen and they have led APPO until now. The Provisional Directors were about 22 people, they were mostly men but also some women. The APPO was a coalition of groups with many demands but their central demand was that the Governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO) step down. He was seen as so oppresive and as part of the corrupt PRI Party that he had to go befote any negociations could even begin.

On June 14 teachers rallied and at 8:00 am they retook the central square in a battle that left the police defeated. The local government and the police were driven out of the city. Barricades were built to protest the encampment in the central square. Barricades were set up all over the city and soon spread to other towns in the region. The barricades stopped traffic from 10:00 pm to 4:00 am. It showed the power of the people. The main strategy was “ungovernability.” People choose to let governments rule them. In this case the people of Oaxaca chose not to let the government rule. Many other actions were taken. Wemen took over radio and tv stations and government buildings in Oaxaca City and mant towns were occupied. The Mega Marcha on July 28th had pover one million people. APPO support in Oaxaca is tremendous.

“The APPO has been, up to now, an anti-authoritarian group. The APPO needs to be anti-authoritarian but with rules, norms and discipline,” said one member of the Provisional Directors as the congress opened.

The congreso started with speaches by the Provisional Directors and was constantly interupted by the enthusiastic delegates chanting, “The people united-will always be victorious,” and “He has fallen-he has fallen-Ulises has fallen.”

It was announced that there were 821 delegates, from the 350 groups that make up APPO. Twenty were from the teachers union (Section 22), 403 were from indiginous communities and collective land (ejidos), 268 were from civil society groups and unions and 132 were from neighborhoods and barricadas. There were also 69 members of the press and 72 invited guests.

Speaker after speaker got up to announce their support or announce actions taken on behalf of APPO. Indiginous people from six towns in Veracruz state are now blockeng the highways. There is right now a mass march in mexico City of thousands of people. There are strikes in Guerrero State, especially in Acapulco. One speaker announced the support of the leftist PRD party but the cheers were reduced by half. People have a mistrust of parties and hierachical leaderships.

There were chants of “Zapata vive-La lucha sigue,” and applause for everything. People were excited and happy to be organizing their future. Everyone raised their fist and sang the song Venceremos (We will win). The press was asked to leave and APPO got down to serious business.

The assembly divided up into the seven regions of Oaxaca. In the large echoing room it was very loud and chaotic. Each group had to pick three representatives. Some groups were small and chose quickly. The Valle Central group (Oaxaca city, the coreo f APPO) had so many people that they had to divide into sub groups. There was tremendous shouting, animation and participation. Hands were raised, there was clapping and arguing. People stood on chairs and shouted, people on the edges straind to listen and there were hundreds of small conversations. Everyone was trying to figure out how to organize in the best and most participative way. “Barricadas over here and Neighborhoods over there.” “No. No. Neighborhoods and Barricadas is the same.” Those people went back to one group. Older indiginous women with strips of orange cloth braided into their hair and young guys in Coca Cola t-shirts, men in cowboy hats and teachers in sports jackets or dressy skirts all debated together.

Shouts filled the hall. Votes were taken by delegates holding up their badges. Only tose with the ornge badges of the delegates could vote, while guests and the organizing comite could still speak.

Some groups had decided but Neighborhoods and Barricadas still had not. Women with spakling earings and guys with pierced eyebrows wistled, waved their hands and leaned in with others to listen. “Who is from Santa Lucia?” Everyone was talking to everyone, expressing their opinion. “Do we agree?” The rest of Valle Central was ready but Neighborhoods and Barricades still hadn`t picked a representative.

Mixteca was still deciding as well. Many men in cowboy hats listend much more quietly than those from Valle Central. Finally they chose their three representatives. Valle Central still had to choose. The sub-groups had made their nominations and these people got up on the main table. Valle Central delegates handed them theri delegates badge as a vote. Women in white embroidered blouses handed their badges to one of the six candidates. Finally the results were announced and the three chosen.

David from the barricades was elected second delegate fro Valle Central. A woman giggled, “The guy from Barricades won. I won for the first time in my life.” She laughed and everyone was in good spirits.

A member of the provisional Directors picked up the microphone, “Whatever happens in Oaxaca is going to have its repercussions in all the other states, in the whole country.” He handed the mic to another, “Valle Central- Neighborhoods and Barricades took a while but what we are doing has never been done before and we are going to make mistakes…but after all of this we have the movement.” The newly elected representatives would be dived into organizers, secretaries, vice-presients and the president. These roles were only for the Contitutional Congress.

Each delegate to the congress got three votes for the candites. The votes had to be for three different people. People wildly cheered for the delegates from their region. One group cheered for David. “He is from the barricades.” People debated wich regions to vote for. Which would be toughest in the comming struggle. The delegates raised their badges to vote candidate by candidate. When it came to David the cards went up and people chanted, “Strong, strong, barricades, barricades…” David was elected First Secretary.

The representatives who got the most votes from each region came up. “How many votes do we get,” shouted one woman. “Three votes.” Then it was decided that two was better. Delegates held up their badges to vote for president and the six vice presidents. The Sierra got a lot of votes, “La Sierra, those people rose up in arms (in the 70´s).” Some delegates used both their votes for other regions to escape regionalism. There were whistles and shouts and a recount had to be done realy quickly.

The members of the Provisional Directors got up and waved good bye. Their job was done and a new group was in charge of running the conference that would choose the more permanent leaders. There were cheering and chants of “Unity, unity…” and “Shoulder to shoulder-Elbow to elbow-The APPO-The APPO-We are all the APPO.”

The newly elected president picked up the mic, “We have just participated in an inherently democratic process.” Then a woman in a red skirt waved her hand frantically from the side. The president held out the mic and she ran up. “We can´t just have regions represented but women and men.” It was true all of the represntatives had been men. There was cheering from women and many men. The assembly burst into a tumult. There was shouting and arguing all over. The new leaders were a little confused. A man ran up to the mic and made a proposal. “We should add two women to the Organizers.” “No, No” it was shouted down by women. The women were frantically runing to the mic and men and menbers of the old leadership all wanted to speak. “Proposals, proposals,” called the president. Small groups were shouting and discussing and grappling with this problem and trying to find a solution. One of the vice-presidents took the mic, “We have made a mistake.” Another vice-president took the mic, “We are a democratic organizarion and if we make a decision we are able to change it, right?” Finally the tumult calmed down. Adding two women to the bottom was seem by most as totally inadequate but the leadership was only for the congress. So, it was decided to proceed with the leadership as it was but to make shure that women were well represented when the new leadership would be chosen in two day. Everyone seemed happy. Everyone had been willing to compromise and everyones voice had been heard and taken into what would be done.

At this time a carravan of 200 people from Las Abejas organization in from Chiapas arrived at a church in Oaxaca. They brought with them five tons of food for the APPO and came in solidarity. Everyone cheered and spoke about how they were massacred by paramilitaries while celebrating mass in 1997. The new president asked if people wanted to go welcome them. The response was tepid. There was so much work to do in the congress. A vice president proposed that the Provisional Directors be sent instead. There was great applause and it was agreed.

David, as new First Secretary read a long document of the history of APPO. It pointed out the destructive nature of Plan Puebla Panama, NAFTA, the FTAA, capitalism and other forces. It poited out how these same things supported Governor URO and how he in turn promoted them. It talked about how people protesting them were put down and slowly formed into the APPO.

The conference went on late into the night and will continue for three more days. Although there is a structure of president etc. it was clear that APPO is run by the people at the base and that the leadership structure is mostly to get things organized. The directly democratic and participatory nature of the event were great to see. People really can organize to run things themselves. When the issue of women not being represented came up almost everyone was willing to get rid of the selection process that had just taken hours in favor of a fairer one. The respect and belief in each other was amazing to see.

Mexican bishop says church unable to grant asylum to Oaxaca activists

OAXACA, Mexico

The Roman Catholic bishop of Oaxaca said the church lacks the resources to grant asylum to four leftist leaders who led a five-month takeover of the city.

The leaders of the Oaxaca People's Assembly had publicly asked for asylum or sanctuary in one of the colonial city's churches earlier this week, fearing they might be arrested on charges stemming from the sometimes-violent demonstrations.

Bishop Jose Luis Chavez Botello told reporters Saturday that the church does not have the facilities to provide them sanctuary.

"We don't have the resources or the infrastructure to guarantee their physical integrity, which involves a serious responsibility," the bishop said.

Chavez Botello said the church was trying to act as a facilitator for understanding and dialogue, and has not taken sides in the conflict that began as a teachers' strike in May.

"We have cared for average citizens, policemen, teachers and state government employees, without distinction," he said.

The movement's most visible leader, Flavio Sosa, faces arrest warrants on riot and conspiracy charges and says he has not slept at home in months.

He has been engaged in on-again, off-again talks with the federal government and frequently speaks to reporters and supporters just blocks away from positions taken by the federal police following a raid in late October, but police have apparently not pursued him.

On Saturday, a convention of the People's Assembly met to plan out the movement's strategy, after striking teachers voted to accept pay increases and many agreed to return to work.

The protesters have set up their headquarters at Oaxaca's state university in the city, after being expelled by police from the city's arch-ringed main square. Francisco Martinez Neri, the university's rector, has refused to allow police to enter the facility.

But the rector also said that classes suspended for weeks because of the university takeover should resume, and suggested that police presence in the city "will prevent acts of bloodshed."

For five months, Sosa's supporters, then-allied with the striking teachers, seized the city center, kept out state police and drove away tourists from one of the country's top destinations. They built barricades, burned buses and took over private radio stations to broadcast calls for revolution.

On Oct. 29, President Vicente Fox sent 4,000 federal officers, backed by helicopters and water cannons, to push the leftists out of the city center.

But the violence persisted elsewhere as federal officers clashed with protesters using gasoline bombs and fireworks packed with glass and nails. Last week, 30 people were injured in confrontations with police.

There have been at least nine political killings in Oaxaca city since August, mostly of Sosa's fellow leftists.

Federal police said over the weekend that they would start assuming anti-crime operations in the city, because some criminals had taken advantage of the political upheaval to commit robberies and other crimes.

DHS: An Open Letter to the 110th United States Congress

By Miguel Contreras,
Posted on Fri Nov 10th, 2006 at 12:22:34 PM EST

To the Honorable 110th United States Congress:

Request to Immediately Initiate Congressional Hearings on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") and subordinate agencies: the Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE"); the Customs and Border Protection (CBP); and the Citizenship and Immigration Service ("CIS") for Allegations of Corruption; Criminal Activity (including murder); Abuse of Authority; Mismanagement; Fraud and Abuse; Cronyism; Nepotism; Favoritism; Obstruction of Justice; Dereliction of Duty; Misuse of Government Funds; Providing False Information/Data and Misleading and Lying to the US Congress and Government Cover-Ups

Honorable future Speaker U.S. House Representative Nancy Pelosi, remember you voted against the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. You were right! Now you have the power to dismantle it.

On November 7, 2007, the American People finally spoke at the ballots by changing our American history.

We, the people of the United States finally changed the course of how our U.S. government will be run for the next two years and hopefully for a long generation.

The 110th Congress is respectfully requested to refer to the stories written by investigative reporters Al Giordano http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/5/24/2 22740/305, and Bill Conroy at http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/billconr oy regarding the above referenced federal agencies. The "House of Death" Murder victims and their families are crying for justice.

To give you an example of the extent of the DHS's problems managing its own agencies, I refer you to Bill Conroy's news reporting exposure on corruption at ICE and other federal agencies, by reading the following introductions of three of his stories:

"National-security trump card played in House of Death cover-up" - By Bill Conroy, Oct 28th, 2006 - Narco News

"U.S. government lawyers have reached for the ultimate weapon in the House of Death mass murder cover-up: National Security.

Once that label is successfully applied to any aspect of the case, it is a sure bet the full truth of the U.S. government's complicity in the murders will forever be suppressed.

And just what is being hidden under the trench coat of national security?

Between August 2003 and mid-January of 2004, a dozen people were kidnapped, tortured, butchered and then buried in the backyard of the House of Death — located at Calle Parsioneros 3633 in Juárez. The killers were Mexican police in league with a narco-trafficker named Heriberto Santillan Tabares, who was a top lieutenant in the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes organization.

The murders were carried out with the help of a U.S. government informant — a former Mexican cop who had attained high standing in Santillan's organization. The informant, Guillermo Ramirez Peyro, was under the watch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and an Assistant U.S. Attorney in El Paso, Texas.

When the informant's role came to light, after his activities nearly cost the lives of a DEA agent and his family, rather than investigate the callous activities of U.S. law enforcers who allowed the informant to commit murder under government cover, the leadership of the U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, chose to bury the facts along with the bodies.

A cover-up was hatched, that continues to this day, and the high-ranking DEA agent, Sandalio Gonzalez, who blew the whistle on the whole sordid affair, became yet another victim of the House of Death — his career ruined in the aftermath of a calculated effort to silence the messenger." http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/10/28/ 203716/40

"DHS, DOJ brass turned a blind eye to House of Death murder, federal prosecutor confirms"
By Bill Conroy, Sep 30th, 2006 - Narco News

"It's official: High-level officials within the departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) did know about the activities of a U.S. government informant who supervised and participated in murder in Juárez, Mexico, and yet they allowed that informant to continue his bloody assignment in what is now known as the House of Death case.

A sworn legal affidavit recently obtained by Narco News that was prepared by the U.S. prosecutor (Juanita Fielden) who oversaw the House of Death case confirms that fact.

Fielden's affidavit is included as an exhibit in a civil rights case filed against U.S. law enforcement officials by the families of the victims in the House of Death mass murder. That case is currently pending in U.S. District Court in El Paso, Texas.

Between August 2003 and mid-January of 2004, a dozen people were kidnapped, tortured and butchered at the House of Death located at Calle Parsioneros 3633 in Juárez. Those murders were carried out with the help of the U.S. government informant, who had penetrated a Juárez cell of the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes' (VCF) narco-trafficking organization.

During the course of those murders, the informant, Guillermo Ramirez Peyro, a former Mexican cop, was under the supervision of federal agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Fielden was the Assistant U.S. Attorney in El Paso assigned to oversee the case.

When the informant's role came to light publicly, after his activities nearly cost the lives of a DEA agent and his family, rather than investigate the callous actions of U.S. law enforcers who allowed the informant to commit murder under government cover, the fearless leadership at DOJ as well as DHS, which oversees ICE, chose to bury the facts along with the bodies. At least that is the story line conveyed by numerous law enforcement sources who have spoken with Narco News during the course of our coverage of this case.

In fact, prior Narco News reports have shown that Fielden's boss, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, a well-wired guy within the Bush administration, conspired with the head of the DEA, Karen Tandy, to keep the informant's role in the murders out of the press and to assure that a high-ranking DEA agent, Sandalio Gonzalez, was thwarted in his efforts to expose the U.S. government's complicity in the murders. Gonzalez became yet another victim of the House of Death — his career ruined in the aftermath of a calculated effort to silence the messenger.

Up until now, the documents uncovered by Narco News in the House of Death mass murder demonstrate that high-level U.S. government officials, such as Sutton, Tandy and even the U.S. Attorney General, were at least aware of the informant's role in the murders after a dozen bodies were dug up in the back yard of the home in Juarez in early 2004." http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/9/30/1 9315/7364

"DEA veteran claims House of Death informant had license to murder" - By Bill Conroy, Nov 6th, 2006 - Narco News

"Narco News has been covering the House of Death mass murder story for more than two years. From the first story in the series, published in April 2004, law enforcement sources and later public documents have made it clear that a U.S. government informant participated in dozen or more murders in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, with the knowledge of U.S. law enforcers and prosecutors.

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for whom the informant (Guillermo Ramirez Peyro) worked, and prosecutors with the Department of Justice, who were charged with trying the case against the narco-trafficker at the center of the House of Death, have continued to either deny their complicity in the murders or simply refuse to comment on the case.

However, yet another document has come to light that supports Narco News' version of the House of Death story and casts serious doubts on the U.S. government's continued whitewashing of the facts in this case.

Even prior to this latest revelation, U.S. law enforcement sources, including Sandalio Gonzalez, the former head of DEA's El Paso, Texas, field office, have contended for some time that Homeland Security and Justice officials have actively worked to cover-up the facts of U.S. government complicity in the murders.

Seemingly adding more weight to the charges of a cover-up, U.S. government attorneys revealed recently in court pleadings related to the House of Death that DEA is considering classifying portions of a critical joint DEA/ICE report about the mass murder case by invoking the cloak of national security.

The families of the victims of the House of Death murders have filed a lawsuit alleging that ICE officials and the lead prosecutor in the House of Death case violated their constitutional rights. That litigation is currently pending in federal court in El Paso, which is just across the Rio Grande River from Juarez.

Recently, in that case, an affidavit was filed by a former high-level DEA agent, who previously served as the head of the agency's Dallas field office and as head of DEA's El Paso Intelligence Center. The former agent, Phil Jordan, and his experiences, including the murder of his brother as a result of a suspected narco-trafficker payback, are the subject of a book called "Down by the River," penned by Charles Bowden. The book is considered a seminal work on the drug war and its pernicious and bloody reach across both sides of the border.

Jordan's affidavit is a new and crucial document because it brings sharply into focus what Narco News has been reporting on the House of Death mass murder for years now. As a result, we now wish to share his testimony, provided under oath, in its entirety with you kind readers.

(Information in the affidavit below that is contained in [brackets has been added by Narco News for background purposes. ICE officials mentioned in the affidavit are identified by the titles they held at the time the House of Death played out in 2003 and early 2004.)" http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/11/6/2 11332/229

Reference to all of the Government Accountability Office ("GAO") reports dealing with DHS and its agencies: http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/app_processform.php?a pp_id=docdblite_agency&page=All

Reference to all of the DHS' Office of Inspector General reports dealing with DHS and its agencies: http://www.dhs.gov/xoig/rpts/

Another book I highly recommend you to read is written by DHS' former Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin titled: Open Target: "Where America Is Vulnerable to Attack" - Book Description:

"After September 11th, longtime Bush friend and aide Clark Kent Ervin was hand-picked from the State Department to be the first Inspector General of the newly created Department of Homeland Securitycharged with making America safe again. Based on shocking first-hand experiences during his tenure and the disturbing developments since his departure, Open Target is Ervins explosive account of how little prepared we are today and how far we have to go to protect ourselves from future terrorist attacks. Ervin talks candidly for the first time about how he was pressured by top leaders to sugarcoat his findings and how his refusal to spin the truth and toe the party line ultimately led to his forced departure. He shows where we are today, laying out our nations biggest vulnerabilities, and offers solutions for a department in disarray. Ervins revealing page-turner includes: Behind locked doors conversations with top leaders who pressured him to put a positive spin on his negative findings The disturbing reality that air travelers are almost as unsafe today as they were on 9/11 and that nothing has been done to secure mass transit The gaping holes in border security that can allow terrorists to sneak into the country The flaws in port security that could spell nuclear disaster His stunning conclusion about the DHS and intelligence communitywhich means that it could be the last to know the next time theres a plot to attack us How wasteful spending impacts the effectiveness of the department and the security of the homeland." (Amazon.com) http://www.amazon.com/Open-Target-America-Vulnerab le-Attack/dp/1403972885

If after you have reviewed the above referenced reports, you would like to read what I, a retired 30-year of law enforcement working experience and a non-professional journalist or investigative reporter has written for NarcoNews.com, my reports can be found at: http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/miguelco ntreras

The 110th Congress is respectfully requested, to be held accountable those public officials found to be responsible for committing said offenses and to render justice where justice is due.

Time after time the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Mr. Michael Chertoff has ignored his own Inspector General's investigative and Audit Reports and recommendations (changes) regarding ICE, CBP, CIS and other subordinate agencies. For example the DHS-OIG found that there were problems at ICE with its disciplinary process. As usual, there was no reaction and no response from Mr. Michael Chertoff.

DHS, ICE, CBP, and CIS seem to be out of control spending billions of dollars in tax payers monies in projects that because of "national security concerns" we are not allowed to know where all this money is going.

DHS, ICE, CBP, and CIS keeps rewarding inept managers and supervisors who are found guilty of discrimination, incompetence (mismanagement) or with disciplinary actions by transferring or promoted them at our tax-payers expenses. All while low-ranking employees are severly disciplined for mistakes or errors that if committed by management and supervisors are ignored or condoned by the agency's leadership; and/or if committed by employees of other federal agencies result only with a supervisor doing his job by constructively correcting an employee's deficiencies without initiating a disciplinary process.

Those of us who have reported corruption by our own U.S. agency's leaders have become targets of "botched" internal investigations and have paid very high prices for doing our duty.

The same has taken place at the DOJ, FBI, DEA, and OSC: the respective administrators have acted with arrogance and disregard for the average Federal employee and our American Society as a whole. As you review what Bill Conroy has reported, you will discover that the "House of Death" Juarez, Mexico murders cover-up involves Attorney General Alfonso Gonzales, U.S. Attorney Johnnie Sutton of San Antonio, TX, the DEA and possibly the FBI.

"Decency, security, and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means--to declare that the government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal--would bring terrible retribution. Against that pernicious doctrine this court should resolutely set its face." - Mr. Justice Brandies of the U.S. Supreme Court in Olmstead V. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928)

To All Concerned and Affected Federal employees and American Citizens:

It is requested that every concerned and affected Federal employee and American Citizen forward a copy of this open letter to their local U. S. Senator and U.S. House of Representative in support of this request for U.S. Congressional Hearings to be held on the above listed federal agencies, departments and bureaus and voice also your personal concern. Please also send it to your local newspaper. You don't have to wait until the 110th Congress is in place. You know who were the winners on this 2006 national election and who will be your US Senator and US House of Representative in the 110th US Congress.

How to Contact Your Local U.S. House of Representative:

http://www.house.gov/writerep/

How to Contact Your Local U.S. Senator:

http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/general/one_item_ and_teasers/contacting.htm

God Bless America!

Miguel Angel Contreras, PhD
Honorably Retired ICE Special Agent

Oaxaca Fights Back

by Laura Carlson

In regional lore, Oaxacans have a reputation for being like the tlacuache. A recurring figure in Mexican mythology, the tlacuache plays dead when cornered. But woe to the enemy who thinks the battle is over. The small but fierce creature merely awaits a more propitious moment to fight back.

The Oaxacan protest movement burns slow, but deep. Oaxacan teachers, who mobilized for a pay raise last May, consciously built on years of protest against social inequality in their state. On June 14, the state government goaded the Oaxacan tlacuachewhen it attempted to evict protesting teachers from Oaxaca's central plaza. Oaxacans responded by forming the broad-based Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO). The federal government confronted the growing movement on October 28 when it sent thousands of federal police to occupy the city. The murders, wounding, and disappearance of the protestors have only deepened the resolve of the movement as a whole.

Although the stage was set for confrontation, the movement continued to insist on non-violence. They lay down in front of advancing tanks and distributed flowers to riot-geared cops. On November 2, a crucial battle took place when the police attempted to retake the university. Inside the university, the radio station that has been the backbone of the protest organizing over the past five months was under siege the entire day. Radio APPO did not cease to broadcast and the people did not cease to defend it, despite the grossly uneven odds against them.

“Our eyes are burning with tear gas, but at least now we can see the government for what it really is,” a young woman commented over the air in a voice filled with urgency and determination. “We're not budging.”

People all over the world heard her. Radio APPO streamed through the computers of listeners who followed the battle for the university in blow-by-blow accounts. They instantly activated networks to plan their own protests. Within days, demonstrators gathered in front of Mexican consulates and embassies in the United States and Europe, calling for an end to police repression of the movement. People whose names are well known throughout the world wrote and published letters, and people whose names have been printed only in phone books signed petitions. In a small town in Italy, hundreds of young people gathered to discuss North-South cooperation and declare their solidarity with Oaxaca, and in New York several protesters were arrested in front of the Mexican consulate. The Zapatista Other Campaign mobilized a binational roadblock on the Mexico-U.S. border. The list of actions worldwide goes on and on.

Both houses of the Mexican congress and the secretary of the interior, who is charged with domestic policy, have called for Oaxacan Governor Ulises Ruiz to step down. Despite the breakdown of governance in the state, he has refused saying it is his duty to hold on to his job. On November 5, the movement mobilized tens of thousands of people in a march through Oaxaca. In the pre-dawn hours of November 6, bombs exploded in the offices of the electoral tribunal, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and an international bank. No one was killed or injured, but the tension rose several notches. Several guerrilla groups claimed responsibility for the acts, demanding the resignation of the governor, freedom for political prisoners held following police repression in the town of Atenco, and investigation of the charges of electoral fraud.

The APPO immediately condemned the bombings and repeated that it has no relations with guerrilla groups. It has continued to try to negotiate a peaceful settlement of its demands. In the turbid political atmosphere following Mexico's presidential elections on July 2, Oaxaca's conflict has now catalyzed a series of events that threaten Mexico's stability.
Why Oaxaca?

The mountains of Oaxaca became the refuge of pre-Columbian civilizations that were never fully conquered. The history of resistance and persistence that developed there permitted the survival of cultures that bucked a colonizing mentality and rejected tacitly or explicitly the wholesale imposition of colonial political systems. At the same time, to subjugate the rebels required some of the nation's most brutal forms of repression. Many of these remain fundamentally intact to this day. The governor, whose resignation has become the principal demand of the current Oaxacan insurrection, has inherited the mantle of this centuries-old tradition of repression.

Oaxaca is a land of many peoples. The state encompasses 16 languages within its borders and has the nation's largest number of municipalities (570), in large part due to the determination to preserve and strengthen local self-government. Even in Oaxaca City, where fighting between police and protesters has transformed the urban landscape, diversity precludes any easy characterization. Mixtecos converge with Martians (the local name for the city's large population of foreign artists, writers, pensioners, and NGO workers), tourists with beggars, the rich with the poor.

This diversity, which in another context could fragment a social movement, has become the wealth and collective strength of Mexico's most important social justice rebellion in recent years. Oaxacan teachers have drawn on over 26 years of experience in the democratic teachers' movement. Section 22, the group of Oaxacan teachers organized in the National Education Workers Union (SNTE by its Spanish initials), has long been a stronghold of the democratic faction of the union. For years its leaders have been elected from this dissident faction and have become leaders in Oaxaca's social movements beyond the union as well.

Oaxaca's rebellion also has roots in the battles of the indigenous communities for autonomy and, since the 1970s, for the restoration of communitarian forms of self-government, collective work, and identity. Added to the mix has been the anger of a new generation of high school and university students sick of getting short shrift from governments impoverished by structural adjustment and corruption. And as a final ingredient in a recipe for rebellion, citizens sensitized to the injustice expressed in daily life rose up against a disputed gubernatorial election that seemed to doom their society to more of the same or worse.
Leading Edge

The significance of the Oaxacan movement to Mexico is obvious. It is the first challenge to a federal government with little legitimacy or credibility, elected amid charges of fraud last July. Although Felipe Calderon takes office on December 1, the rules of Mexican politics dictate that all major, and especially very visible, decisions like the repression of the Oaxacan movement must at least be approved by him. The government's decision to send in federal police is in part based on a desire not to pass on a problem to a weak president who lacks the political capacity to resolve it.

The frustrations that led to the formation of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) exist throughout the country. Elections that fail to reflect the popular will, inequalities that sunder communities, brutality and corruption that flourish with impunity—no region is immune from the kind of social unrest that gave birth to the Oaxacan movement. Many Mexicans openly celebrate each victory of the Oaxacans, and each day they maintain the resistance. Knowing this, the government seeks to repress the movement without conceding political ground, so as not to provide a dangerous precedent in a system that relies on the complacency of the political and economic have-nots.

But why do other people care? Does Oaxaca have a meaning beyond an inspirational tale for those who aspire to a more just world?

If the movement for global justice were a territorial battle, Oaxaca would be a tiny point on a very large map, of little consequence except to the people involved. But symbolic battles, although very real for the combatants themselves, are the true terrain of the movement for global justice. They offer an opportunity, even when lost, to defeat the myths that uphold the system.

Oaxaca is the South of the South. It is the truth to the lie that Mexico has joined the First World by grabbing onto the coattails of the United States through the North American Free Trade Agreement. The failure of this integration strategy in Oaxaca and other southern states in Mexico was so obvious that even a recent World Bank report felt obliged to address the issue. Its conclusion—“the southern states did not benefit from NAFTA because they were not prepared to reap the benefits of free trade”—was foregone and surprised no one who has studied the Bank's blame-the-victim logic. If forced to do an evaluation of globalization in general, defenders of neoliberalism would no doubt castigate the entire global South for this supposed failure. Needless to say, it is of little consolation to the hungry, the displaced, the disenfranchised, and the discarded.

The Oaxacan rebellion is proof that for many people, even physical preservation can become secondary to fighting for a conviction. With only the raw material of their own lives in their hands, they have set out to mold a different future. Although demands today center on the governor's resignation and fair pay for teachers, the new forms of organization and consciousness created will endure long after this movement and become the seeds of future movements.

They will also be the seeds of popular rebellions in other places. The Oaxacan rebellion is a reminder that an evaluation of the consequences of free trade and globalization is indeed overdue — and that the World Bank has no right to be the evaluator. The people who have suffered the consequences should evaluate the system. Too often in the North, the reports of protest and rebellion around the world are seen as disparate battles or isolated complaints and not as part of a growing consensus that something is gravely wrong. Those who have benefited from free trade rules, especially those living in countries that designed these rules, have a responsibility to get the message.

What could have been a local conflict has detonated a national confrontation and contributed to the revival of violent factions. The government's lack of political will has blocked real negotiations. It has failed to respond to Oaxaca's valid demands and open up talks on the reforms needed to assure Mexico's peace and stability. Instead, the country is now perilously close to the opposite.

Letter from Political Prisoners to the People of Oaxaca in Struggle

by Compañeras Gloria, Mariana, Norma, Suelen, Edith, Magdalena, Maria Luisa and Patricia
Chiconautla and Santiaguito, the State of Mexico
November 11, 2006

“You Have Shown Us to Unite in Our Struggles”

Political prisoners from Chiconautla and Santiaguito, Mexico State. November 1, 2006

MESSAGE TO THE HUMBLE AND DIGNIFIED PEOPLE OF OAXACA

In other words, to:
The members of the APPO
The indigenous peoples of Oaxaca
The teachers of Section 22
The Other Campaign in Oaxaca
Every man or woman who does not belong to any
organization but who is taking part in the struggle
All political prisoners

We are honored to address this letter to those who come from below and to the left in Oaxaca.

We cannot get out of prison to be there with you, which is where we would like to be right now. That is why we are sending our words out instead, to tell you that our hearts are with you; that it hurts and angers us every time a compañera or compañero is tortured, imprisoned or killed.

Your pain, dignity and rebellion are being heard loudly, not only in Oaxaca but also throughout the nation and beyond its borders. Here, behind walls and bars, we are listening and making your struggle our own.

As others who come from below and to the left of Mexico, we would like to say THANK YOU, compañeras and compañeros, for the huge lessons you have given us through your own example, regardless of which organization you are from, or whether you are part of any organization at all.

What have we learned from you? What does your example say to México? DIGNITY, REBELLION, SELF-ORGANIZATION, AUTONOMY; and that many steps must be taken to bring these things to life.

You have shown us the DECISION to struggle, to motivate, to OVERCOME FEAR when the state tries to paralyze us with terror.

When, in the State of Mexico, we were hurt and angered by the criminal attack from municipal, state and federal government forces in Atenco; when occupations and roadblocks were criminalized and those from above joined in chorus to sing the praises of the iron fist and the use of repression against social movements, Oaxaca showed us that nothing can stop an entire people rising up together.

You have shown us to UNITE all of our struggles. In a state where social movements are divided among different organizations, with different struggles dispersed throughout and separated not just by geography, but also by different demands, you have shown us that the differences between left organizations can be overcome by a people that UNITES and discovers its own power.

When the state and city police could not act in the capital; when the governor could not travel to any corner of the state; when he was declared persona non grata in the state where he was born; when none of the five hundred counties provided him cover on the night of September 15th, when the government and media offices were occupied by the movement; when the city halls and police headquarters were taken over in some towns, it became clear that the movement had taken on the magnitude of a state in rebellion. It was not those at the top, but rather the people themselves who were rebelling, without falling into provocation and violence (which was to come, for sure, but from above and ultimately draped in the uniform of the PFP and military police).

You learned and taught us ANOTHER WAY OF DOING POLITICS. This did not come from a politically divided Oaxaca, but rather from a Oaxaca that its original peoples live in and know deeply. This form of politics is for and from those below; it does not look to those at the top, or to any party or candidate (although the Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD, now wants join the movement).

It is a form of politics from below that does not depend on any one leader or savior; when some leaders held positions that were not in line with the movement they were roundly rejected, which forced them then to LEAD IN OBEDIENCE.

It is a way of doing politics from below that demonstrates that it does what the vanguards lack in doing. It is form of politics that exercises SELF-GOVERNMENT AND DIRECT DEMOCRACY.

In various parts of Mexico, AUTONOMY is coming into existence and being strengthened. Oaxaca has also taught us SELF-GOVERNMENT – not to the extent of achieving an autonomous state, but enough to indicate clear signs of a path that is, indeed, possible: that is, the path of autonomous municipalities (not just those that proclaim themselves as such in the heat of the moment, but also those that have been resisting and fighting for many years) and the corps of topiles, or community police, which offers an autonomous alternative to the corrupt and repressive municipal and state police.

The corps of topiles and the mobile guards steered clear of assault and abuse, and gave order and security to a city taken over by its own inhabitants for five months, a record which stands in contrast to that of the federal preventive police (PFP), who filled the central square of Oaxaca City with excrement and urine on their first day there.

You have shown us that we as a people have the ABILITY TO SAY NO, and can exercise that ability. You have shown us that we as a people have the ability to say no to those who harm us from above, to actually impede the impositions they make on us. You did this when you told Ulises Ruiz to leave and took action to ensure that he could not enter the state, let alone govern it; when you said no to the municipal and state police entering the city and took action to make it so they could not proceed; when you said no to dividing the movement when the government summoned the teachers and gave them an ultimatum and still the people stayed united.

You showed us how important it is for a social movement to create ITS OWN VOICE, ITS OWN THOUGHTS, ITS OWN OPINION. You did not limit yourselves to saying that state TV and commercial radio stations were lying, but also established your own sentry radio station. From the beginning, Ulises Ruiz saw the danger that this posed to his power and recognized that this was the backbone of the movement, so he sent his police to destroy Radio Plantón.

You did not leave control over WORDS in the hands of those at the top; you took over University Radio as well as various commercial radio stations and TV Channel 9. That was when those at the top began to shake with fear – in Oaxaca, in the presidential palace at Los Pinos, in government headquarters, in the offices of the incoming administration and in the military.

Something had supplanted them, which was getting in the way of their ability to dominate the thoughts and hearts of the people of Oaxaca. Now it was the people themselves who were getting out their own voices and creating an OPINION from below. The voices and thoughts coming from below did not just reach one sector or group; they reached all of the inhabitants of the capital city and the state.

THE WOMEN OF OAXACA BROKE ALL OF THE MOLDS and showed us the strength of women. They were at the watch points, the occupations, and the barricades, they flat-out destroyed many myths that subjugate women when, during that spectacular takeover of Channel 9, the women – by themselves – began to broadcast. They demonstrated that women have technical abilities, decision-making skills, intellectual capacity and bravery.

When you women cried, “we will take off our aprons and pick up our rifles,” what you effectively did was to rid yourselves of the stereotype that sends you to the kitchen; and you did not pick up your rifles, but rather something better… control of your own future. Now, who can tell women from below in Oaxaca that they “can’t,” or tell women to “go cook and wash dishes,” or tell them to “go home?”

You showed us a POPULAR SELF-DEFENSE that did not mean using arms; that did not attack, but rather protected and defended. This popular self-defense meant leaving barricades to avoid confrontations with the PFP – not fleeing, but rather returning to build the barricades again. This self-defense did not allow the police to raid the University; it made use of rocks and household items, but more than anything relied on ORGANIZATION. Its mobile guards traversed the city and used the radio stations that had been taken over to warn the people of any aggressive movements by confrontational opposition groups. In response, the people came out of their houses and joined the effort to defend antennas, radio stations and barricades. You showed us that the key to self-defense lies in organization, communication and the people’s willingness to respond. Your capacity to retreat and protect yourselves when necessary was also critical.

The Other Campaign has been exposing the crisis within the political class, as are those of us who refuse to accept the role of mere spectators allowed to vote every six years and keep silent if there is fraud. The movement in Oaxaca also made it clear that what we call the political class is only fit for pigs. The political parties were not at all interested in the people killed by Ulises Ruiz’s thugs, or the people arrested and tortured in Oaxaca.

They made their political calculations and decided that the solution to the conflict in Oaxaca could wait, that it was all right for more lives to be lost while they dedicated themselves to dividing up commissions in the House of Representatives. Now that December 1st is drawing near, the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) has made new political calculations and decided to join the movement in Oaxaca in order to gather support for the National Democratic Convention (CND). Of course, this does not mean that the PRD government of Mexico City will withhold from launching grenades at the Other Campaign’s demonstrations in support of the APPO; they deserve it for not supporting López Obrador!

The political equation of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is simple: if Ulises Ruiz falls, next in line will be the “Precious Gov” (Mario Marín Torres, governor of Puebla) and other PRI governors. In other words, all hands on deck to support Ulises Ruiz, no matter what happens. Even if it means the PFP has to stay in Oaxaca for five years; even if it means filling the jails with political prisoners.

The calculations of the National Action Party (PAN) are similar, but they take it from a state to a federal level. If Ulises Ruiz falls after just one year of governing thanks to a fraudulent election, how many years can Felipe Calderón expect to last? This reasoning is why PRI and PAN senators prefer the opinion that even if Ulises Ruiz himself does not remain governor of Oaxaca, his administration’s powers of government should not be dissolved.

There is also another calculation in play between the PRI and the PAN: if you let Ulises Ruiz fall, the first says to the second, we will publicly rebuff Calderón by not attending his swearing-in ceremony. It is a threat that the PRI is not prepared to carry out, but one that Calderón, knowing his presidency is illegitimate, fears anyway.

So Fox made a promise, perhaps the only one that he has kept during his six years in office: to resolve the conflict in Oaxaca like he “resolved” the conflicts in Chiapas and Atenco. And he did it in fifteen minutes: the Center for Investigation and National Security (CISEN) is now following every move that the social movement makes – not just in Oaxaca, but all over the country. He put Plan DN-II into effect, which the National Defense Department (SEDENA) uses for counterinsurgency. Under this plan, a peaceful civilian social movement is considered a guerrilla movement and thus an enemy to be defeated. As a result, this of course led to the PFP being sent to Oaxaca to impose a “state of law.”

Everything happening today has a story behind it, and Oaxaca’s is a long one. Thank you compañeras and compañeros for the important lessons you taught us.

It may be said that this is not a perfect movement or that it has had its share of errors – and that may well be true – but it is without a doubt a popular movement that has overwhelmed the political playing field and has put the federal government and the entire political class in check.

No matter what happens from here on, the true result of the movement in Oaxaca will be seen in the years to come, and not just in Oaxaca. It is a seed already sown in fertile land.

We will not hold on to the fear that they try to impose upon us through blood and torture; we will not hold on to the silence that they try to impose upon us with imprisonment. What we will hold on to are the important lessons that you have taught us.

That is how we can best show you our support, given what is within our reach.

With our hearts, eyes and ears on Oaxaca,

Gloria Arenas Agis
Santa María Detention Center, Chiconautla Ecatepec

Mariana Selvas Gómez
Norma Jiménez Osorio
Suelen Cuevas Jaramillo
Edith Rosales Gutiérrez
Magdalena García Durán
Maria Luisa López Morán
Patricia Romero Hernández
Santiaguito Detention Center, Almoloya de Juárez

Originally published in Spanish Novermber 9

Mexico: Calderon pledges bloody campaign against "terrorism"

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Fri, 11/10/2006 - 23:23.

Responding to the Nov. 6 bomb attacks in Mexico City, Mexico's contested president-elect Felipe Calderon pledged to "work arduously to recover the capacity of the state to face delinquency and terrorism... I have to be honest about this approach, it will not be easy, it will not be fast, it would be pretentious to offer immediate results, it would be an unpardonable boast to say the solution is simple and within easy reach; it will cost us work, time, economic resources, and it will cost us, unfortunately, human lives."

He made his comments in Ixtapa, on the coast of Guerrero, a state bordering conflicted Oaxaca, and where several small guerilla groups are known to be operating. Press accounts noted that Guerrero's Gov. Zeferino Torreblanca of the left-opposition Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) failed to show up for the appearance. (El Universal, Nov. 8)

Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, head of the federal Investigative Sub-prosecutor for Organized Delinquency (SIEDO), asked by a reporter if the bombers have any relation to Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) or the PRD, answered, "At this moment we can say nothing."

But, as we noted yesterday, Government Secretary Carlos Abascal said the federal prosecutor's office (PGR) will follow every "line of investigation"--including the possibility that Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz's political machine carried out the bombings as a provocation.
...

Peru offers an alternative to gas

Water cascading from Peru’s Andes mountains toward the Amazon could be harnessed into electricity for power-hungry Brazil, freeing Latin America’s largest nation from natural gas producers like Bolivia and Venezuela, Peruvian President Alan García said yesterday.

Addressing some of Sao Paulo’s most influential business and industry executives, García said Brazil and Peru should boost bilateral energy and economic ties even though the two nations are members of separate South American economic blocs.

Without mentioning Bolivia and Venezuela by name, García suggested the far-left governments of both nations represent a threat to Brazil’s future economic growth because of their tight state-imposed control over vast natural gas resources that will eventually go dry anyway.

‘‘The gas can run out or they can turn off the tap,’’ García said in a speech to members of the Sao Paulo Federation of Industries. But, he added, ‘‘water never stops flowing.’’

Brazil meets 50 percent of its natural gas needs for power generation from Bolivia, but Bolivian President Evo Morales is nationalizing the industry, pushing for higher prices from Brazil and Bolivian control of natural gas installations owned by Brazil’s state-owned oil company.

While Brazil doesn’t get any natural gas now from Venezuela, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez wants to supply Brazil through the construction of a US$20 billion pipeline through the Amazon that experts say could cost much more.

Environmentalists also call it a potential ecological disaster.

Venezuela has South America’s largest petroleum and natural gas

U.S. will train Latin American militaries (again)

by Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON

Concern about leftist victories in Latin America has prompted President Bush to quietly grant a waiver that allows the United States to resume training militaries from 11 Latin American and Caribbean countries.

The administration hopes the training will forge links with countries in the region and blunt a leftward trend. Daniel Ortega, an adversary of the United States in the region during the 1980s, was elected president in Nicaragua this week. Bolivians chose another leftist, Evo Morales, last year.

A military training ban was originally designed to pressure countries into exempting U.S. soldiers from war crimes trials.

The 2002 U.S. law bars countries from receiving military aid and training if they refuse to promise immunity from prosecution to U.S. servicemembers who might get hauled before the International Criminal Court. The law allows presidential waivers.

The White House lifted the ban on 21 countries, about half in Latin America or the Caribbean, through a presidential memorandum Oct. 2 to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The training is conducted in the USA.

A ban on giving countries weapons remains. Commercial arms sales are not affected, said Jose Ruiz, a U.S. Southern Command spokesman.

The training ban had resulted in a loss of U.S. influence in the region. The issue gained urgency after a string of leftist candidates came to power in Latin America.

On a trip to the region this year, Rice said that the impact of the ban had been “the same as shooting ourselves in the foot.”

China stepped into the gap. Ruiz said China “has approached every country in our area of responsibility” and has exchanged senior military officials with Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Cuba and provided military aid and training to Jamaica and Venezuela.

The ban remains in effect for some countries. Venezuela, whose fiery President Hugo Chávez is a critic of the Bush administration, remains ineligible because it is on a State Department list of countries alleged to have permitted the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation and forced labor.

Chávez is up for re-election in December and leads in the polls. Cuba is also off-limits because of a long-standing U.S. embargo against Fidel Castro's regime.

Ruiz said efforts are being made to transfer money this year to begin training foreign officers from eligible countries.

Hugo Chávez inaugurates International Book Fair, dedicated to Cuba

CARACAS

President Hugo Chávez inaugurated the 2nd Venezuelan International Book Fair (FILVEN), where Cuba is the guest country of honor, on November 2, at an event where the first books produced by the Cultural Fund of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) were launched.

At the Parque del Este, a spacious open-air venue, where this fiesta of books and reading was opened, the Venezuelan leader received a collection of these valuable titles, including the biography of Venezuelan national hero Francisco de Miranda, by historian Carmen Bohórquez; an essay by Cuban historian Francisco Pividal regarding the anti-imperialist anticipations of the Liberator Simón Bolívar; La Edad de Oro (The Golden Age), an anthology of José Martí’s ideas on Our America; and a biographical sketch of the life and work of the Cuban national hero by Cintio Vitier.

Other titles launched included a compilation by Argentine writer Atilio Borón on the subject of Imperio e imperialismo (Empire and Imperialism); Operación Cóndor (Operation Condor) by Stella Calloni; Propagandas silenciosas (Silent Propaganda) by Ignacio Ramonet; Todo Calibán by Roberto Fernández Retamar, and a selection of Mark Twain’s chronicles of the United States, which because of their critical look at life in that country, would appear to have been written today, commented Cuban Culture Minister Abel Prieto, who presided over the launching of these books.