Activists Murdered by State-Backed Paramilitaries in Mexico

International Solidarity Needed for Autonomous Municipality

On 27th April 2010 state-backed paramilitaries opened fire on an international aid convoy heading for the besieged autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala in the state of Oaxaca, southern Mexico.

Beatríz Alberta Cariño,  director of the Oaxacan organisation CACTUS ( the Centre for Community Support Working Together ) and adherent of the Zapatista-initiated Other Campaign, and Jyri Jaakkola, a human rights observer from Finland, were shot dead, and several people were wounded. 

Amnesty International has condemned the attack, by the paramilitary group UBISORT, which has been acting with total impunity in this area, populated by the indigenous Triqui people.   Local activists are demanding that the state governor Ulises Ruiz stop the financing and arming of such paramilitaries. 

The aid convoy comprised members of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), Oaxacan Voices Building Autonomy and Liberty (VOCAL), the grass-roots  Section 22 of the teachers union, the community group CACTUS, and the Independent Movement of Triqui Unity and Struggle (MULTI), accompanied by international human rights observers.

Since January San Juan Copala autonomous municipality has been cut off by paramilitaries.  As a result, write VOCAL "the children cannot go to school, and the community is without electric light, without drinking water, without doctors and health care...."

Oaxaca has a history of struggle.  In 2006 hundreds of thousands created a huge social movement, which paralysed state institutions for months.  Fierce repression crushed the "Oaxaca commune".    However struggles continue, particularly for autonomy and in opposition to profit-motivated mega-projects such as dams and giant windmill farms which rob the indigenous and peasants of their land.

Resistance flowers in many parts of Mexico.  In neighbouring Chiapas the indigenous Zapatistas defy paramilitary and state forces to defend 1,000 communities in resistance, organised in over 30 autonomous municipalities.  The peasant farmers of Atenco defend their land, and are demanding the release of their 12 political prisoners arrested in the vicious state attack of 2006.

Major workers' struggles include the electricians of the SME union, resisting mass sackings, and the copper miners of Cananea, occupying their workplace against possible military attack.

In Oaxaca today, the grass-roots movements and human rights groups in Mexico are asking for international solidarity to demand:

• A guarantee of safety for the caravan participants, especially RUBEN VALENCIA NUÑEZ  who received death threats  (Ruben spoke in Scotland last year).
• That the murderers of Beatríz Alberta Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola be brought to justice.
• An end to the attacks and blockade of the autonomous municipality San Juan Copala
• An end to the financing, arming and impunity for the paramilitary groups in the Triqui region

PROTEST TO THE PRESIDENT OF MEXICO

Lic. Felipe Calderón Hinojosa.

Fax: +52 55 527 72 376. E-mail: felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx

Send e mails of protest to Mexican authorities:

http://www.redtdt.org.mx/d_acciones/d_visual.php?id_accion=90

CONTACT/ INFORMATION

Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group edinchiapas@yahoo.co.uk www.edinchiapas.org.uk

Glasgow Chiapas Solidarity Group  http://glasgowchiapassolidaritygroup.wordpress.com/

UK Zapatista Solidarity Network http://ukzapatistas.wordpress.com/