May 29, 2011
By Members of the La Otra Support Committee of the Caravan

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE AUTONOMOUS MUNICIPALITY OF SAN JUAN COPALA, OAXACA, MEXICO

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD

TO THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND ORGANIZATIONS

TO THOSE IN SOLIDARITY WITH THIS JUST CAUSE

The Triqui people of the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala in Oaxaca, Mexico, make a call-out for international solidarity to all the nations and peoples of the world, so that in the coming days solidarity actions are carried out as far and wide as possible, to exert pressure on the Mexican government and to shed light onto the situation that the people of Copala have endured since 2007. This situation has culminated in the events of the last days and in the Caravan of the Color of Blood, that is happening now, and whose intention is for the people of Copala, who were dispossessed and displaced because they exerted their right to autonomy, to return to their homes

The Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala declared its autonomy January 1st, 2007, after members of the community had participated in the Oaxacan uprising of 2006, and from that day onward the Mexican government has maintained a politic of disrespect and destruction of that autonomy. The Mexican government has carried out this process through two political-paramilitary organizations which it has armed and financed; the UBISORT-PRI and the MULT-PUP.

Since 2007 in this war against the autonomy of the Triqui people of San Juan Copala there has been a death-count of more than 30 people – among them young children, women, men, elders, traditional leaders, and solidarity activists. Furthermore this war has made children orphans and women widows and survivors of sexual assault.

TO INDIGENOUS AND PEASANT ORGANIZATIONS
TO WOMEN’S AND HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS
TO ANTI-MINING AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY NETWORKS
TO THE MEDIA

On April 27, near San Juan Copala, Oaxaca, a humanitarian observation mission was attacked by the paramilitary group UBISORT, during which Alberta Cariño Trujillo and Jyri Jaakkola were assassinated.

The initial investigation was carried out by the Oaxacan State Attorney General’s Office, however, given the evident relationship which exists between the state government and the paramilitary group, it was demanded that the case be taken up by the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR), which joined the preliminary investigation.  Six months have passed since the crime occurred and the PGR submitted the results of its investigation to a judge, but given the investigation’s deficiencies it was sent back and up to now there does not exist any interest on the part of the PGR to ensure that this double murder does not remain in impunity.

During this time, numerous national and international organizations, as well as dignitaries and parliamentarians have demanded that the PGR carry out an adequate investigation and obtain justice, however, this institution has not shown any genuine interest in investigating this crime and even less in punishing those materially and intellectually responsible for it.

Below is a sign-on letter to oppose additional U.S. funds to the Merida Initiative for the disastrous drug war. We have already received an incredible response from all over the Hemisphere. We believe this is a critical juncture, as homicides and human rights violations increase in Mexico and citizens in both countries reject militarization as a strategy to weaken organized crime. This week is the fourth anniversary of the murder of journalist Brad Will, a classic case of impunity in Mexico. We urge you to join us and the hundreds of organizations and individuals listed below in signing this statement. The movement against the drug war enforcement/interdiction approach is getting stronger in light of the history of failure and enormous cost in lives and resources that it entails. It is unconscionable that the US government continues to support it. This is the time to make our voices heard.

Organization sign-ons: mail to stopmeridainitiative@gmail.com

Individual sign-ons at this link:http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/703/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5074

Human Rights, Labor, and Religious Groups Call on Obama Administration and Congress to Uphold Human Rights, Halt Drug War Aid to Mexican Security Forces

Despite nearly 30,000 drug-related homicides, a huge increase in human rights violations by the armed forces and growing citizen opposition to the bloody “war on drugs”, the U.S. Congress is once again considering the allocation of U.S. public funds to Mexico to support the failed counter-narcotics policy. President Barack Obama’s proposed Fiscal Year 2011 budget contains $410 million for the Merida Initiative, a security aid package for Mexico, Central America and the Dominican Republic.  Of that total, $310 million are allocated for Mexico. We question the Administration’s decision to extend indefinitely and unconditionally Bush’s three-year Merida Initiative in light of the violence and ineffectiveness of the strategy, and mounting calls for a new approach from citizens’ groups on both sides of the border.

Existing U.S. aid to Mexico under the Merida Initiative, amounting to more than $1.3 billion, does not include necessary safeguards to ensure that it does not contribute to systematic human rights violations. Only fifteen percent of the funding may be withheld pending a State Department report on Mexico’s progress toward meeting the human rights conditions of the bill.  Furthermore, the Merida Initiative (also called “Plan Mexico”) includes no benchmarks for effective evaluation.

The Merida Initiative supports a reckless strategy that has led to massive bloodshed in Mexico and failed to achieve goals to reduce illicit drug flows, assure public safety or significantly weaken cartels. With 45,000 troops in the streets as the core feature of this militarization strategy, the Mexican armed forces have been implicated in murders, rapes and violations of human rights—the vast majority of which have never been prosecuted.

We are concerned that the State Department has ignored human rights abuses stemming from the Merida Initiative aid and continued impunity and corruption within Mexico, in favor of supporting a militarized approach in the “war on drugs” that has verifiably increased those abuses. The so-called human rights conditions included in the Merida Initiative provide no guarantee whatsoever of progress, and have merely served as lip service to serious concerns while permitting support of the overall strategy. There are no indications of a sustained reduction in the availability of illegal narcotics on the U.S. market that can even be used to justify the heightened violence caused by this strategy.

In particular, we would like to call attention to the case around the murder of U.S. citizen Bradley Roland Will as exemplary of the non-cooperation and impunity with which security forces, the government and the judicial system in Mexico have addressed abuses of human rights by the state. Will, an independent journalist, was shot to death in Oaxaca, Mexico on October 27, 2006, while documenting a series of protest demonstrations. Will was one of at least 26 people allegedly killed by government forces and hired thugs during statewide protests against corruption and impunity. The state has failed to successfully prosecute a single case in the assassinations. Since the drug war was launched in late 2006 Mexico has become a world leader in murders of journalists.

The initial release of Merida Initiative aid was accompanied by a U.S. State Department call for a “thorough, credible and transparent investigation” into Will’s killing. Evidence identifies police and local officials as the assassins in the Will case. However, the Mexican Attorney General’s wrongly imprisoned a protester for the murder. After Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights, the Mexican National Human Rights Commission and the Will family disputed the Attorney General’s claims, the protestor was freed due to lack of evidence and no one has been prosecuted for his murder or the murder of 25 Oaxacans killed in 2006. The U.S. State Department remained silent regarding the false charges and has since done nothing to ensure that Will’s actual killer(s) face justice.

Documentation exists of killings, torture, beatings and gender-based violence committed by security forces, including the cases of Atenco, Ciudad Juarez and repression of labor unions. The U.S. provision of lethal aid and training to these same security forces violates our principles as a nation, tarnishes our reputation and implicates the U.S. government in serious and widespread human rights abuses. The Obama Administration is surely aware of the fact that the purported goal of the Merida Initiative to help establish good governance in Mexico cannot be attained in a climate of impunity for human rights violations and a destabilizing drug war.

The U.S. government has the responsibility to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used in the violation of human rights.  Instead of providing training and funding to the military, police and civil institutions that have allowed and facilitated impunity in the Will case and other cases of abuse against Mexicans, the U.S. government should focus on attacking the causes and structures of organized crime within the United States—drug addiction and the demand for black-market drugs, international financial transactions and transborder corruption, arms trafficking–and aid Mexico in eliminating the roots causes of the spread of crime such as poverty, inequality, unemployment and the lack of opportunities for youth.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Immediately review and re-orient the failed “drug war” strategy for Mexico.

• Suspend military and security aid pending an urgent public review of current and alternative strategy as well as the resolution of the Will case and other human rights cases.

• Establish clear objectives and benchmarks for U.S. taxpayer funded for counternarcotics programs to gauge the success (or failure) of these programs.

• Give priority funding to alternative responses to illicit drug trafficking and transnational organized crime, including treatment for addicts; harm reduction and community abuse prevention programs as well as selective decriminalization to reduce the profiteering of criminal gangs, banks, and corrupt politicians from illegal narcotics.

• Step-up financial crimes operations to identify and prosecute those in banks and other economic structures who enable the estimated $30 billion-dollar a year narcotrafficking industry to operate and launder money.

• Publicly denounce and actively push to end impunity in cases of murder, torture, rape and beatings including those in Oaxaca, Atenco, Ciudad Juarez, and civilian deaths at the hands of the armed forces, as well as the use of the army to violently repress labor rights.

CIP Americas Program

Global Exchange

Friends of Brad Will

Kathy and Hardy Will

School of the Americas Watch

Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña “Tlachinollan”

Witness for Peace

General José Francisco Gallardo, “Defensoría de Derechos Humanos General Gallardo,” por la Dignidad Ciudadana y del Soldado A.C.
Tom Hayden and The Peace and Justice Resource Center

Reporters Without Borders

Guatemala Human Rights Commission

WESPAC Foundation

Kathleen A. Staudt, Professor, Political Science, UTEP

John Ross, journalist

Otros Mundos AC/Amigos de la Tierra México

Convergencia de Movimientos de los Pueblos de las Américas (COMPA).

Movimiento Mexicano de Afectados por la Minería (REMA)

Southwest Workers’ Union (SWU)

Observatorio Latinoamericano de Geopolítica

Movimiento por la Paz, la Soberanía y la Solidaridad entre los Pueblos (Mopassol) de Argentina

Red Mexicana de Acción frente al Libre Comercio (RMALC)

CoecoCeiba/Amigos de la Tierra Costa Rica

Amigos de la Tierra América Latina y el Caribe (atlac)

Coordinación Nacional Agraria (CNA)/Colombia

Coalición de Tendencias Clacistas/Venezuela

Alianza Mexicana por la Autodeterminación de los Pueblos (AMAP).

Unión de Comunicades Indígenas de la Zona Norte del Istmo (UCIZONI)/México

Campaña por la Desmilitarización de las Américas (CADA)

SERAPAZ

Cindy Sheehan, Peace and Justice Activist, USA

Al Rojas and Frente de Mexicanos en El Exterior

Just Foreign Policy

Sirena Pellarolo, California State University Northridge, Eastside Café

Eduardo Galeano

H.I.J.O.S. México

Comité Cerezo México

Ma. Lourdes González (mamá de Pável Gonzalez) Comite Pavel Gonzalez

Red Solidaria Década contra la Impunidad

Contraimpunidad, Uruguay

CASA Collective

MUJERES SIN MIEDO, Mexico

Gruppe B.A.S.T.A., Münster, Alemania

Noam Chomsky, Professor, MIT

EDUCA/Oaxaca

Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras

Consejo de Investigaciones e Información en Desarrollo CIID-Guatemala

Rede Social de Justiça e Direitos Humanos-Brasil

Servicio Paz y Justicia en América Latina (SERPAJ -AL)

Jubileo Sur Mexico

Marea Creciente-México

El Movimiento Popular Oscar Arnulfo Romero

Associção de Favelas de São José dos Campos

Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña

PAPDA-Haiti

Código Sur

Common Frontiers-Canada

MIXER & FILM FUNDRAISER for MEXICO’S OTHER CAMPAIGN

beginning with FOOD, SANGRIA, MUSIC and MORE

around 7p we’ll screen
The blockbuster drama/comedy/monster-movie with smart political commentary and Korea’s highest grossing film ever…THE HOST!

Come start the week off right with a little pre-Halloween soiree

Join us at The Commons Brooklyn
388 Atlantic Avenue
between Hoyt and Bond St
A,C,G to Hoyt-Schermerhorn
F to Bergen
2,3,4,5 to Nevins
D,N,R to Pacific-Atlantic

$5 door, food and drink by donation

On Facebook here.

PLEASE RSVP to zapagringo@gmail.com (you don’t need to RSVP to attend)

More Info on the Film and the Other Campaign:

* The Host

“The Host is a loopy, feverishly imaginative genre hybrid about the demons that haunt us from without and within.” -Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

Come enjoy “one of the 100 Best Films of World Cinema” (Empire Magazine) before the sequel comes out next year and Hollywood puts out its own shitty remake!

* The Other Campaign

Initiated five years ago by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, the Other Campaign is a transnational movement to liberate Mexico “from below and to the left” with adherents ranging from the Zapatista communities of Chiapas all the way up to the immigrant families of Movement for Justice in El Barrio, and beyond.

This is a fundraiser to support the National Encuentro of the Other Campaign being co-convened by Movement for Justice in El Barrio and the People’s Front in Defense of the Land who will be hosting the gathering in their community of Atenco, just outside of Mexico City, on November 13 and 14. For more details check out the call here.

Three years ago, the indigenous municipality of San Juan Copala, in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, declared itself autonomous from the government. Since that time they have faced severe repression, with community members being kidnapped, raped and assassinated by two state-backed paramilitary groups in an attempt to destroy the autonomous project. Join Friends of Brad Will along with guests from Movement for Justice in El Barrio, to learn more about San Juan Copala, including a short documentary and video-message from residents of the autonomous municipality.

Friends of Brad Will is a national network working for justice for Brad Will, an independent journalist murdered by state paramilitaries in Oaxaca in 2006, and to fighting U.S. military aid to Latin America. Movement for Justice in El Barrio is an East Harlem-based organization of immigrants and low-income people of color fighting gentrification in Manhattan and a member of the Other Campaign.

For more information contact Scott Campbell from Friends of Brad Will at soupshow@hotmail.com or 510-295-8843

Urgent Action

Fear for the physical and psychological well-being of Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno and his family, freed last February after being imprisoned for 14 months accused of the murder of Brad Will.

Today, at approximately 10:30am, Mr. Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno left his home, together with his wife, in the municipality of Santa Cruz Xoxocotlan. At 2:30pm, they returned to their house and noticed that the door was open, and upon entering saw that all their belongings were out of place and that the lock on the door had been broken.

After briefly looking over everything, they noticed that no items of value were missing, ruling out that what happened was a robbery. They also saw that their important documents had been gone through, as well as their personal photographs. While they are unsure if any of their personal documents or photos have been taken, they are awaiting the arrival of the expert’s report from the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR), which will be added to case file PGR 723/2009, previously opened as a result of earlier threats and harassment.

Minutes after arriving at their home, they called the Federal Preventive Police (PFP), speaking with Guillermo Romero. The police arrived at 4:35pm to inspect the site. These actions are part of the preventive measures adopted by the Mexican state as a result of the petition for protective measures, number MC-92-10, which is currently pending before the Interamerican Human Rights Commission (CIDH), in response to the various aggressions that Mr. Martínez Moreno and his family have been subjected to.

We call to your attention that once free, Juan Manuel Martínez and his family have been subjected to various acts of intimidation that have caused them to change their residence three times since leaving jail (February 2010). These acts have been reported to the PGR and have brought about the appeal for protective measures.

As a result of these events, Mr. Martínez Moreno is very concerned, as this can be considered yet another act of harassment against him.

As a result of these events, the November 25 Liberation Committee,

1. Demands an investigation into these acts of aggression, threats and intimidation against Mr. JUAN MANUEL MARTÍNEZ MORENO, as well as an end to the acts of intimidation to which he and his family have been subjected.

2. We demand the Mexican state guarantee the security and physical and psychological well-being of Mr. Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno and his family.

3. We ask for the solidarity of the international community to demand that the Mexican state take effective and efficient actions that guarantee the security of activists and human rights defenders.

Sincerely,
November 25 Liberation Committee
Oaxaca, September 24, 20101

We ask that you send your urgent actions to:

LIC. FELIPE CALDERON HINOJOSA
PRESIDENTE CONSTITUCIONAL DE MÉXICO
FAX (55) 52 77 23 76
felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx

LIC. FRANCISCO BLAKE MORA
SECRETARIO DE GOBERNACIÓN
FAX (55) 50933414 MAIL: secretario@segob.gob.mx

LIC. ARTURO CHAVEZ CHAVEZ
PROCURADOR GENERAL DE LA REPÚBLICA
TEL. (55) 53 46 09 08 MAIL: ofproc@pgr.gob.mx.

LIC. RAUL PLASCENCIA VILLANUEVA
PDTE. DE LA COMISIÓN NACIONAL DE DERECHOS HUMANOS
FAX (55) 56 81 71 99, correo@cndh.gob.mx

copy the Comité de Liberación 25 de Noviembre: comite25noviembre@yahoo.com.mx

LIVE PRESENTATION OF THE DISAPPEARED
JUSTICE FOR MURDERED COMRADES BETY CARIÑO AND JYRI JAAKKOLA
END THE ATTACKS AND SIEGE ON THE AUTONOMOUS MUNICIPALITY OF SAN JUAN COPALA

On Tuesday, April 27, an solidarity caravan made up of Oaxacan civil society organizations and international solidarity activists was ambushed by state-backed paramilitaries. They were bringing much-needed supplies and attempting to break the siege of San Juan Copala, an autonomous Triqui community encircled and accosted by the same paramilitaries. Around 15 armed men from the paramilitary organization UBISORT ambushed the convoy, killing Bety Cariño, director of the Center of Community Support Working Together (CACTUS), and Jyri Jaakkola, an international solidarity observer from Finland.

Two reporters accompanying the caravan, Érika Ramírez and David Cilia, remain disappeared. Just before the ambush, two Triqui women from San Juan Copala were disappeared by UBISORT.  At the scene, several surviving caravan members received death threats from UBISORT.

Join us in standing in solidarity with the autonomous project of San Juan Copala, to demand justice for Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola, and that the disappeared are returned alive, immediately.

For more information see El Enemigo Común: http://elenemigocomun.net.

Called for by Friends of Brad Will. For more information, contact Scott Campbell, soupshow@hotmail.com.

*Phone Calls to Governor Urged So That He Orders State Police to Rescue the Wounded*

by Kristin Bricker

A solidarity caravan headed to the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala, Oaxaca, was attacked as it passed through La Sabana, a town controlled by UBISORT, a paramilitary organization that is allied with the ruling Institutional Revolution Party. One young woman managed to make it to a hospital where she is being treated. She reports that there are 15 wounded people. Alberta Cariño, the director of the community radio organization CACTUS, is reported as disappeared. No one saw what happened to her, but she is among neither the wounded nor the uninjured.

The Puebla-based human rights organization Nodo de Derechos Humanos reports that the Oaxacan State Police who are in the area refuse to rescue the wounded “because they don’t have orders to do so from the State.”

San Juan Copala declared itself autonomous following the 2006 uprising in Oaxaca, and the autonomous government declared itself adherent to the Zapatistas’ Other Campaign. The autonomous municipality has been the target of paramilitary violence ever since. Countless San Juan Copala residents have fallen victim to paramilitary violence. The most prominent case was the
execution of two young Triqui radio journalists.

This past November, paramilitaries opened fire on San Juan Copala’s town hall during a caravan that was traveling to San Juan Copala from San Salvador Atenco. UBISORT had put up a highway blockade to stop the caravan, which was comprised of People’s Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT) members. While the FPDT was trapped outside the town, paramilitaries attacked the town hall. They shot four children, killing one of them.

The official action alert from the Nodo de Derechos Humanos is reposted below. They request that people call Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz to demand that he orders the State Police to rescue the wounded. Here’s a quick line in Spanish: “Que manden la policia estatal a rescatar los heridos en San Juan Copala.” It means, “They need to send the state police to rescue the wounded in San Juan Copala.”

****

*URGENT:* The solidarity caravan that was en route to the Autonomous Municipality San Juan Copala in the Triqui region, which was made up of international observers, members of CACTUS, VOCAL, Section 22 of the teachers union, the the APPO, was attacked with firearms in the La Sabana community, which is controled by the organization Unidad de Bienestar Social de la Region Triqui (UBISORT). This organization is impeding the rescue of the wounded. Reports indicate that there are at least 15 wounded, it is unknown if there are any deaths. It is reported that Alberta Cariño, director of CACTUS, is disappeared. We fear that this action constitutes a provocation that could be used to justify the militarization of the Triqui region.

*Requested Action*

Call the Government of Oaxaca and demand that the necessary conditions be established so that the State Police and rescue teams can rescue them and provide them with medical attention.

Governor of Oaxaca

*Ulises Ruiz Ortiz*

Tel. +52 951 5015000 ext. 13005

Fax. +52 951 5015000 ext. 13018

–
Kristin Bricker

Freelance journalist / periodista freelance
http://mywordismyweapon.blogspot.com

Join Friends of Brad Will for a public talk, discussion, video screening and photo exhibit with:

John Ross, Mexico City-based author, poet and rebel journalist. John will discuss the manipulation of the case of Brad Will in U.S.- Mexico relations, the broader attacks against journalists in Mexico, and the lethal U.S. ‘drug war’ aid package to Mexico known as Plan Mexico.

Mark Read, from Friends of Brad Will. Mark will discuss his March trip to Oaxaca, where he met with Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno, the Oaxacan activist falsely charged for the murder of Brad Will, and will screen footage of his interview with him.

Hinrich Schultze, Hamburg, Germany-based photographer with the Ya Basta Zapatista Solidarity Network and Cafe Libertad. Hinrich was with Brad in Oaxaca in 2006 and will be displaying photos of the 2006 protests and street art. The photo exhibit will be opening Tuesday, April 20 at 8pm and run through Friday evening of April 23.

Brad Will was an Indymedia journalist killed by government paramilitaries in the Mexican state of Oaxaca in 2006, while documenting a teachers’ strike and popular uprising against corruption and impunity and for democratic change.

For more information contact Scott Campbell: soupshow@hotmail.com.

Note:  At the exhibit opening on Tuesday, April 20, people can join the Sixth Street Community Center for dinner at Organic Soul Café which serves from 6:30pm – 9:30pm. Veggie dinners are $11 and with wild Alaskan salmon option $15.

FORMER RCMP OFFICERS PREPARE MISLEADING REPORT CONCERNING KILLING OF AMERICAN JOURNALIST, BRAD WILL, IN OAXACA, MEXICO

MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: www.friendsofbradwill.org; Scott Campbell: soupshow@hotmail.com

* * *

On October 27, 2006, Brad Will, an independent journalist from the U.S., was shot and killed while documenting a protest in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.

Since June of 2006, there had been a massive popular mobilization in Oaxaca, calling for democratic change and rallying against corruption, impunity and poverty in a state long dominated by the PRI (Institutional Party of the Revolution) headed by the regime of Ulises Ruiz.

In response to the people’s pro-democracy movement, the state and federal governments unleashed a wave of repression against the movement, killing at least 26 people and violating the human rights of hundreds of others.  Brad Will was one of those 26 killed.

One year later, in 2007, the Bush Administration announced a three-year international agreement known as the Mérida Initiative, authorizing the disbursement of $1.4 billion to Mexico, Central American countries and the Dominican Republic, with the vast majority of funds going to Mexico.  A major focus of the Merida Initiative was to be the so-called “war on drugs”.

Original release of the funds was accompanied by a U.S. State Department call for a “thorough, credible and transparent investigation” into Brad Will’s murder.  While those who shot him have been clearly identified by eyewitnesses as police and local PRI party officials, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (PGR) charged pro-democracy protester Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno for Brad’s murder in 2008.  Human rights groups such as Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights, Reporters Without Borders, and the Committee to Protect Journalists, as well as the Mexican government’s own National Human Rights Commission and the Will family, vigorously disputed the Attorney General’s claims.

To bolster their fallacious claims, the PGR requested assistance from the Canadian Embassy in Mexico. In response, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) recommended three individuals, including two former RCMP officers, to carry out an “independent” investigation.

The Canadians’ report, released in July of 2009, supported the fallacious claims of the PGR that Will was shot at close range by a protester.  Physicians for Human Rights, Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission and the Will family dismissed the report, pointing to the well documented facts that ballistic, sound, and photographic evidence point to a shot fired from a distance and from the direction from which police and local PRI party officials were firing at the protesters.

As well, the Canadian investigators, former RCMP officers recommended by the Canadian embassy, did not speak or read Spanish, so they had to rely on the PGR for translation and access to information; they did not reconstruct the murder scene or conduct witness interviews; their report displayed significant bias against Brad Will and the protesters; and it was riddled with inaccuracies.

After 16 months in prison, under false charges of murdering Brad Will, Juan Manuel Martínez was released on February 18, 2010, due to lack of evidence.

WE ARE ASKING YOU TO CONTACT THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT AND PRESS IT TO EXPLAIN:

1. The process by which they recommended former RCMP officers who assisted the Mexican government in attempting to cover-up of the murder of a journalist and if, as news reports state, the PGR “turned to Canada…to bolster their case,” if the Canadian embassy in Mexico recommended individuals knowing they would support the PGR version? [1]

2. Why the Canadian government has not publicly condemned the manipulated report, done by former RCMP officers, on the murder of U.S. journalist Brad Will?

3. What is the Canadian government’s policy regarding the use by retired RCMP officers of their former RCMP affiliations in authoring reports at the request of a foreign government?

4. Will the Canadian government make public the information provided by the Canadian Embassy to the Mexican government regarding the investigators it proposed?

USING THE ABOVE TALKING POINTS, PLEASE SEND EMAILS TO THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS:

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada: enqserv@international.gc.ca, bcm@international.gc.ca

Canadian Embassy in Mexico: mxico@international.gc.ca

Royal Canadian Mounted Police: http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cont/comment-eng.htm

* * *
[1] http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:2U4-kJik-kwJ:www.canada.com/business/Victim%2Bfamily%2Bquestions%2BRCMP%2Bpart%2BMexican%2Bmurder%2Bprobe/2072833/story.html

FOR MORE INFORMATION: or to get involved in the case of Brad Will and the social movement in Oaxaca,
visit: www.friendsofbradwill.org;
join the Friends of Brad Will listserv: http://lists.interactivist.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/justiceforbrad;
contact Scott Campbell: soupshow@hotmail.com.

* * *
www.rightsaction.org / info@rightsaction.org