El Universal
The United Nations on Friday expressed concern about police abuse in Mexico, particularly “the indiscriminate use of arbitrary detentions” against some protesters.
A report by the U.N. Committee Against Torture cites several police crackdowns on protests between 2004 and 2006 in which it says officers allegedly sexually abused female demonstrators and beat others.
The torture committee report called on Mexico “to guarantee that the use of force is solely employed as a last resort.” The committee is made up of 10 independent experts who meet to review countries´ adherence to the 1984 U.N. Convention Against Torture. Read more »
A full day of art exhibits, screenings, spoken word, folkloric danzantes, live music, hip hop…
$5 -$10
Suggested Donation (no one turned away)
Coperacion Voluntaria (ninguno rechazado)
Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center
1680 Lexington Avenue
(corner of 106th Street)
(esquina de la Calle 106)
New York, NY 10029
(212) 831-4333
Oaxaca Solidarity Benefit / Solidaridad con Oaxaca
Sunday 12.17.06 2pm – 12am
more info check out:
www.elenemigocomun.net
All proceeds go to sending media resources and medical supplies to some of Oaxaca’s most remote indigenous communities, in order to contribute to their ability to document their own histories of collective organizing and resistance.
Todas las donaciones van para mandar equipo de medios y medicinas para algunas de las comunidades mas remotas de oaxaca, para poder contribuir a su abilidad de documentar sus propias historias de resistencia y organizacion colectiva.
28 November 2006
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. Read more »
What: General Meeting
When: 5 December 7:00pm
Directions: The Muste office, 339 Lafayette St, corner of Bleecker (right
above the Bleecker st, stop on the 6), buzzer #11, rm 306.
The plan is to have an hour or so for a short general meeting followed by a
working groups break-out session so they can meet and folks can get plugged
into them.
Tentative agenda:
1) Intros
2) Where are we at with various work areas/reportback
3) Present working group structure from Sunday meeting 2 wks ago as a
proposal
4) Discuss any needed changes to scope of work/working group division of
labor, etc.
5) Ways forward
6) Working group break-outs.
Other agenda items? Post them to the list or bring them with you on Dec. 5th.
Translation of CODEP note, Spanish original at bottom.
November 27th, 31st day of the occupation of Oaxaca by federal forces
TO SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS
TO HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS
TO THE PEOPLE IN GENERAL
ULISES RUIZ AND FELIPE CALDERÓN STRIKE HUMAN RIGHTS IN OAXACA WITH THE COUP DE GRÂCE
If by nature the presence of the encampments of the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) in public places and the night patrols of the police forces and paramilitaries was aggressive, now that the patrols are done in the plain of day, this city, declared as a cultural patrimony of humanity, is a true war zone. To Oaxaca citizens, it is now not only that we have been captivated by the right to protest, but that we live in a literal state of siege. The violence in the state is unleashed. The enormous number of vehicles carrying members of the PFP patrolling the city is impressive, in addition to the innumerable personal vehicles without license plates that continue picking up and shooting people. Read more »
Kriser Screening Room, Dept. of Anthropology
(First floor, 25 Waverly Pl.)
In the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, indigenous video makers are
engaged in coverage of human rights violations, social unrest, and
indigenous demands, as well as exploring new visions of media use
through cultural preservation and collective production. Three award-
winning producers from the area will screen clips and discuss the
social role of media in their communities:
Mariano Estrada (Tseltal), from Palenque, Chiapas, produces
documentary videos with Comité de Defensa para la Libertad Indígena
(CDLI), an organization that supports indigenous rights in Chiapas,
Mexico. His video Rostro de la Historia Indígena won Best Documentary
at the Geografías Suaves festival in Mexico in 2004. He received a
National Video Resources Media Arts Fellowship in 2002.
Sergio Julián (Mixtec) of Ojo de Agua Comunicación in Oaxaca City, is
a video maker and web master who has been closely involved in media
training and production in indigenous communities in Oaxaca for over
a decade. He will discuss the Mal de Ojo collective, which emerged
from the teacher’s strike in June 2006 to document the protests and
repression of the largest social movement the city has seen.
Pedro Daniel López (Tsotsil), from Zinacantán, Chiapas works in
indigenous communication with Proyecto Videoastas Indígenas de la
Frontera Sur. His most recent video, K’evujel ta Jteklum/Song of our
Land has screened at numerous international festivals in Chile,
Mexico and the US. He is a 2006 recipient of the Media Arts grant
from Re:Media (ex-National Video Resources).
Presented by Dept. of Anthropology / Center for Media Culture &
History / Center for Latin American & and Caribbean Studies in
conjunction with the 13th Native American Film & Video Festival,
National Museum of American Indian (Nov. 30 – Dec. 3).
Brad’s family is establishing a foundation in the memory and celebration of his and work to further his vision of making the world a better place. See BradWill.org. There are many, many photographs of Brad online here, and you can download a songbook of songs Brad used to sing. Other sites with testimonials and remembrances of Brad include bradwill.blogspot.com and NYC Indy Media.
By Christine Karatnytsky
for Dyan Neary
Goiania! Oaxaca!
the story of dyan and brad ends in the air this time but
there was another time when the story was in the land
with the people when the sun shown down on them warm
in the sad hard time for a people with no land
Goiania! Oaxaca!
the story of the land was warm it was red with him with
them all red as her arms grasped as the land to grasp him warm
as he swept into the air (carrying, lifting) the people cheered
him to breathe Stay with me, don’t go, go!
(the camera trails like a vine, then falls)
Christine Karatnytsky
Day of the Dead, 2006
for Dyan Neary
By Sarah Ferguson | November 26, 2006
The family of slain Indymedia journalist Brad Will has renewed its call for an independent investigation of his shooting, which occurred while Will was covering protests in Oaxaca, Mexico. Family members accused authorities in Oaxaca of attempting a “ludicrous” cover-up after the Oaxaca state attorney general, Lizbeth Caña Cadeza,alleged earlier this month that Will was shot by the protesters he’d gone to Mexico to film.
(Witnesses say demonstrators dove to Brad Will’s aid just moments after he’d been shot. Photo: Javier Otaola/Excelsior)
Will, 36, was gunned down on the outskirts of Oaxaca City on October 27 as he videotaped a street skirmish that broke out after pro-government gunmen opened fire on supporters of APPO (the Popular People’s Assembly of Oaxaca). The grassroots coalition had taken over government buildings and barricaded streets in the capital in order to force the removal of Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz.
Read more »
Here are some resources where you can find more information on the situation in Oaxaca, including background information and current breaking news.
Video: Doctors that were next to Brad Will when he died deny what has been stated by the Oaxaca government.
http://vientos.info/cml/?q=node/6859
Mexico, November 23, 2006.- In these videos found on youtube, doctors who were next to Brad Will speak. One of them is the doctor who gave him first aid and went with him to the hospital, and the other is the forensic doctor who performed his autopsy. Both of their testimonies deny the versions that have been spinned by the goverment of the State of Oaxaca. Read more »
The Associated Press
Published: November 24, 2006
OAXACA, Mexico: Authorities in the southern state of Oaxaca insisted
that an American journalist-activist killed during violent protests last
month was not shot at point-blank range as they had indicated earlier.
The assertion made Thursday further muddies a case already dogged by
conflicting statements and accusations by protesters that authorities
are trying to protect their own in the death of Bradley Roland Will. Read more »
November 20th, 2006 – Barucha Calamity Peller writes: About 5 thousand people marched to the zocalo. There, people got on top of trucks, barricaded the zocalo and began protesting the police. The police lunched teargas, after which began hours of battle. Protesters defended themselves with slings, fireworks, and bazookas, and constructed barricades around the APPO planton in Santo Domingo plaza, just blocks away from where the police were advancing from. Read more »
Friends of Brad Will and The Change You Want To See Gallery present a screening of the new video LAND, RAIN, AND FIRE: REPORT FROM OAXACA by Tami Gold and Gerardo Renique. A discussion of recent events in the Mexican state will follow.
Tuesday, November 28th, 7:30pm
The Change You Want To See Gallery
84 Havemeyer St, Brooklyn, NY 11211
L to Bedford, G to Metropolitan, J/M/Z to Marcy
917-202-5479 or 646-221-7845 Read more »
“On November 20, blockades will be set up to show the Mexican government we mean business. We are calling upon YOU to join in these blockades. That could mean blockading the consulates’ websites, jamming their phone lines with calls about the conflict in Oaxaca, occupying the offices of the consuls, or shutting down the roads around the consulates in whatever way you see fit.” – EZLN Poster for November 20th promotion
http://indybay.org/uploads/2006/11/16/oaxaca_nov20.pdf
Global Solidarity with Oaxaca
http://vientos.info/cml/?q=node/6340
More Information
Oaxaca
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.
Brad Will will not be able to rest peacefully. The people of Oaxaca have given their lives. Today the government wants to think we are also assassins. The Mexican government wants to attribute his death to members of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) to exonerate the true assassins, by means of a supposed judicial investigation that aims at those who were on the side of the APPO and not on the side of the paramilitary snipers.
Brad R. Will would die again if he knew the government of Mexico wants to attribute his death to the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO).
Read Full Story
The last time I saw independent journalist and activist Brad Will was in September in an East Village yoga studio. I turned my head and found him lying on the mat next to me in the darkened room, his pale, flat stomach rising and falling serenely with the rhythm of his breathing. So on October 27, when I saw the photos posted on the Internet showing the 36-year-old Will’s mortally wounded body laid out on a street in Oaxaca, Mexico, I cringed. There was that same pale, flat stomach now punctured by a bullet.
Read Full Story
The APPO congress has planned marches for everyday this week. This happens despite daily attacks within Oaxaca. APPO leaders are in hiding with hit lists with their pictures, names and addresses on them. The University is under attack nearly everyday. The people of Oaxaca are remaining definiant and graffiti is reapplied to walls as soon as old slogans are removed.
Photos From Oaxaca|Message from the Student and Youth Conference in Oaxaca
Call to Action for November 20th
|Oaxaca is calling for US to get Organized
Barricades removed by the Federal Preventive Police, during their invasion and occupation of Oaxaca City since Nov 1, may be reconstructed throughout the city as early as tonight.
“If hostility continues, if detentions and disappearances continue, we will put up more barricades…if Ulises doesn’t leave, we will put the barricades back up.” said Alejandro Benitez, a student of the university that houses the last remaining APPO radio station in the city. Read more »
Demonstration against the repression in Oaxaca today at 4;30 at the Mexican Consulate. The Professional Staff Congress (CUNY faculty and staff union) has called a demonstration “to demand an end to the violent repression of teachers, strikers and other working people in Oaxaca.” It is important that CUNY students and others come out for this protest!
Mexican Consulate, 27 East 39th Street between Park and Madison Avenues
For those unable to attend tomorrow’s memorial for Brad Will, there will be a live audio stream of the event at St. Mark’s Church from 1:00-5:00pm tomorrow, November 11th. You can access that stream by copying and pasting the following URL into your radio player’s URL input. Very easy in itunes, for instance.
http://liveradio.indymedia.org:8000/asc.mp3.m3u
Please send this to teachers you know everywhere:
U.S. Teachers Unions: American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and United Federation of Teachers (UFT)
1. AFT Members (and their friends) Contact state federation members here (http://www.aft.org/about/fedsites.htm). Read more »
The family of Brad Will wrote:
November 8th, 2006
The family of Brad Will has issued the following statement:
“We understand that two of the group of five allegedly involved in Brad’s
murder have been arrested in Oaxaca. We applaud this action but also note
that the other three implicated directly in the crime remain at large. We
urge that efforts immediately be expanded to find and arrest all of those
involved in all recent killings there.
We call for the creation of an independent federal Mexican commission to
ensure a fair and just investigation and trial.
And we urge an inquiry into the extent to which higher-level officials in
the state government of Oaxaca have been involved in both Brad’s murder and
other human rights violations.
We also condemn and seek an immediate end to the illegitimate arrests and
ongoing harassment of the press corps in Oaxaca.
And we wholeheartedly agree with Reporters Without Borders’ call for Oaxaca
state governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz to be summoned before the new prosecutor’s
office dealing with attacks on press freedom.
Finally, we urge that the demonstrators maintain a distinctly peaceful and
non-violent approach to the expression of their demands in Oaxaca.”
IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE POPULAR ASSEMBLY OF THE PEOPLE OF OAXACA THE SIXTH COMMISSION OF THE ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION HAVE CALLED FOR A MEXICO-WIDE GENERAL STRIKE.
The Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee-General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation issued a call for nation-wide road blockades.
We are inviting NYC to show support for the people of Oaxaca and the grass roots organization, APPO, by taking action on November 20th. Read more »
To the Friends and Community of Brad Will,
TREA (Teens for Racial and Ethnic Awakening) and YELL! (The Young, Eclectic Liberation Leaders) are high school student activist groups in Queens. We met Brad last year at our school and, in tribute to him and those who were killed last week, we are hosting a discussion/workshop on Brad Will’s work and the struggles of the people of Oaxaca.
Read more »
This Sunday, November 12th, there will be an outdoor celebration of Brad’s life, and his work protecting community gardens. The weather should be sunny, and we will have a picnic and barbeque! Additionally, we shall be planting in the garden and may be building a ‘winterized’ structure to keep garden protectors warm and dry throughout the cold months.
What: Music around the fire, building lock-downs, sharing stories, sharing food, tree and bulb planting.
Read more »
As part of the Memorial and Convergence, there will be a day-long Oaxaca encuentro on Sunday, November 12, from 2p-Midnight!
@ St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery
(131 E. 10th St on the corner of 2nd Ave in Manhattan’s East Village)
To learn more about the struggle that Brad Will was in Oaxaca to document, come to this day of engaging workshops + movies at night!
See you there!
Details below…
Read more »
Remembering Brad Will, by Kate Crane
Photos of Brad Will in Oaxaca (October 2006), courtesy of Hini Schultze (www.hinifoto.de).
I just hung up the phone with my friend Maia. She spoke to me from a rickshaw somewhere in India; now and again, the blare of unfamiliar street noise overwhelmed our voices. It was a conversation neither of us wanted to be having. I had to tell her that on Friday, October 27, our friend and colleague Brad Will was murdered by paramilitaries in Oaxaca, Mexico. For five months teachers there had been striking, and they wanted to oust the governor, Ulises Ruiz. Brad, a journalist with the all-volunteer Indymedia news organization, had traveled to Oaxaca to document the teachers’ struggle, just as he’d traveled to Bolivia, Brazil, the Yucatan peninsula, and elsewhere to record stories that the mainstream media either under- or misreported. Read more »
Drug War Articles | admin 11/30/2006 | 
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