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.

Beatríz Alberta Cariño – Rest in Peace (source)

Jyri Jaakkola – Rest in Peace (source)

UPDATE 8PM: The two individuals whose deaths have been confirmed are Beatríz Alberta Cariño, the director of CACTUS and member of the Southeast Mexican Indigenous Community Radios Network, and Jyri Jaakkola, an international solidarity observer from Finland.

Four people have been confirmed disappeared: David Venegas Reyes and Noe Bautista Jimenez, from VOCAL, and Érika Ramírez and David Cilia, reporters from Contralínea.

Other information: Protests have been held in the city of Oaxaca, where individuals blockaded a major highway with commandeered buses, and Mexico City. Numerous organizations and collectives have denounced the attack. A survivor of the attack held a press conference earlier today, where, as Kristin Bricker notes, she stated the paramilitaries identified themselves as UBISORT and said they have the governor’s support. Contralínea reports that the State Investigation Agency did not look for the disappeared today. Photos of the ambushed vehicles can be seen here. Here is an article written by a friend of Bety Cariño.  Here is an article about Jyri Jaakkola before he left for Mexico.

If people have more updates or news, please leave a comment.

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[See previous entry for more info on the paramilitary ambush of the solidarity caravan in Oaxaca]

My translation of the VOCAL communique. Along with the three disappeared people mentioned, the the two reporters from Contralínea remain disappeared. According to Oaxaca en Pie de Lucha, it was the press vehicle which was attacked in which Beatriz and Tyri (some say Yuri) were riding. They also mention a fourth disappeared, an international whose name is not known. That would bring the disappeared to at least six, with many still unaccounted for.

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Oaxaca: Paramilitary attack leaves two dead and three disappeared

Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca
April 27, 2010

To the media
To the people of Mexico
To the people of the world
To the people of Oaxaca

Armed attack against the Caravan of Support and Solidarity with the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala, Oaxaca

Yesterday the realization of this caravan to the Triqui region, inside of our state of Oaxaca, was announced to the media. In this caravan there are comrades from the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), Section 22 of the teachers’ union, Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom (VOCAL), CACTUS, members of MULTI (Independent Triqui Movement of Unification and Struggle), as well as international observer comrades.

As was already announced, the caravan left today, April 27, 2010, at approximately 11 AM from the city of Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca, with the goal of breaking the siege that the Autonomous Triqui Community finds itself in as a result of state and paramilitary repression against the process of autonomy which it is building inside this community.  Violent paramilitary attacks have occurred at different moments during the autonomous process of San Juan Copala and have been directed by the paramilitary organization called UBISORT (Union for Social Well-Being in the Triqui Region) which in reality is presided over by Rufino Juárez Hernández and the MULT (Triqui Movement of Unification and Struggle Movement.)

Before the departure of the caravan, the autonomous president of San Juan Copala, Jesús Martínez Flores, placed responsibility for any attack on Evencio Nicolás Martínez, Oaxaca State Attorney General, Jorge Franco Vargas “El Chucky”, State Interior Minister, and Carlos Martínez, local PRI candidate for the state congress.  Also, he urged UBISORT and MULT to behave responsibly and with earnestness towards the peace negotiations for the Triqui people.

Approximately 100 kilometers before reaching La Sabana, the road was blocked with rocks, and that is where the cowardly armed attack began, by about 15 paramilitaries in the service of the murderer Ulises Ruiz Ortiz’s government (the type of weapon is unknown), leaving vehicles destroyed, wounding a comrade, and leaving two people dead.

During the attack, some comrades escaped, hiding in the hill, and of those who don’t know their way we are worried that they have been captured by the paramilitaries. Those comrades who as of now are disappeared are NOE BAUTISTA JIMENEZ, DAVID VENEGAS REYES, and DANIEL ARELLANO CHAVEZ, all of them members of VOCAL.

Regrettably, as information is coming in we know that two comrades lost their lives in this paramilitary attack; they are BEATRÍZ ALBERTA CARIÑO TRUJILLO, a member of CACTUS, and TYRI ANTERO JAAKKOLA, an international observer comrade from Finland.  Both died as a result of gunshots.

During the events, comrade MONICA CITLALI SANTIAGO ORTIZ was wounded in the back by a gunshot and was attended to by medics in Juxtlahuaca.

Those who stayed in the area of the shooting were taken from the vehicles and brought to the hill to be interrogated; some were threatened with death and later were released on the highway. Comrade RUBÉN VALENCIA NUÑEZ, a member of VOCAL, was detained by paramilitaries who took his I.D., his cell phone, and threatened him with death, then let him go.

An ambulance came to the site of the events to attend to the wounded, but was also cowardly shot at by the paramilitaries, which forced it to leave. While they were leaving, they found a wounded comrade who they attended to, and to whom they confirmed the death of the comrades previously mentioned.

As a result of the confusion and uncertainty of the events, the location of the previously mentioned comrades is unknown, as is their physical and psychological condition.

That this armed attack is a product of the conditions of institutional violence and impunity that paramilitary groups enjoy in this region of our state. Institutional violence directed at the different manifestations of social struggle in Oaxaca, and specifically against the construction of autonomous processes.

This attack occurred in the context of the isolation and state of siege that the municipality of San Juan Copala lives under, where since January the children have not had classes, where the community does not have electricity, potable water, doctors, and lives under permanent paramilitary harassment as a result of the blockade they have established there.

That the murderer Ulises Ruiz’s government end the paramilitary attacks in the Triqui region.  As well, that he end the financing, arming and impunity that these paramilitary groups enjoy in our state.

The immediate return of our disappeared comrades.

To the people of Oaxaca, of Mexico, to the international community and the different social organizations, collectives, and groups, to visibly show your solidarity and support with the demand for the return, alive, of our disappeared brothers and for the punishing of those responsible. Also, we fraternally call on you to demand an end to the violent conditions facing the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala.

The live return of the disappeared comrades!

End the paramilitary blockade that encircles this autonomous Triqui community!

Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom

(VOCAL)

For those who don’t remember, Juan Manuel is a member of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca who is being scapegoated for the October 27, 2006, murder of Indymedia journalist Brad Will, actually carried out by paramilitaries linked to the governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. He has been in jail since September 2008.

In exciting news, on December 30, 2009, a state court ordered Juan Manuel released within ten business days for lack of evidence, citing that the testimonies against him had “lost all probative value.” Juan Manuel was to be released on January 16, barring an appeal by the PGR.

Everyone was skeptical, as the PGR has been pathologically pursuing its sham of a case against Juan Manuel for more than a year. Yet, things looked even brighter when the PGR communicated to Juan Manuel’s family that they would not be appealing the ruling.

And then, of course, on January 15, just before time ran out to appeal, the sick bastards at the PGR filed an appeal against his release. The case now must go to the Supreme Court, which will take several months at least, and all the while Juan Manuel remains in prison.

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