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Police Attack Oaxaca Guelaguetza-One Person Confirmed Dead, 62 Detained, Disappearances
July 16th, 2007- Today in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, a confrontation between the APPO (Popular Assembly of The Peoples of Oaxaca) and security forces of the State of Oaxaca as well as Federal Preventive Police has left at least one movement participant dead as a result of police violence, at least 62 detained, and an unknown number of people disappeared.
Police Attack Oaxaca Guelaguetza-One Person Confirmed Dead, 62 Detained, Disappearances
By Barucha Calamity Peller
July 16th, 2007- Today in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, a confrontation between the APPO (Popular Assembly of The Peoples of Oaxaca) and security forces of the State of Oaxaca as well as Federal Preventive Police has left at least one movement participant dead as a result of police violence, at least 62 detained, and an unknown number of people disappeared.
According to an APPO press statement released today, the police launched “a broad offense” against the people of Oaxaca who were celebrating their alternative and popular guelaguetza (an annual Oaxacan cultural festival) in the Guelaguetza auditorium. The APPO announced two days previous that it would hold an alternative cultural festival in the main Guelaguetza auditorium, located in the Fortin Mountain outside of the city.
Federal Preventive Police and State police surrounded the perimeter of the Guelaguetza auditorium in order to prevent people from entering the festival. A caravan heading to the festival, tailed by 10,000 people, arrived to the auditorium, and in that moment the police attacked the crowd with tear gas, rocks, sticks, whatever they had in their hands, as well as with unidentified explosive projectiles. People retreated, and the police advanced, beating and arresting people. Three photographers were reported to have been beaten. Countless others were tossed into the back of police pick up trucks with serious injuries.
For the moment the state and the municipal police continue a citywide operation in the streets of Oaxaca City, detaining people in the open. The military are reported to have surrounded the city on the highways.
Several people are reported to be in grave conditions, and police apparently apprehended injured festival participants and APPO supporters while they were transported by the red cross to receive medical attention.
There are reports that the detained are suffering torture and constant beatings at the hands of the state and federal police.
Emeterio Merino Cruz Vazquez, the one confirmed fatality from police violence, was killed from impact from a unidentified explosive projectile fired by police, which split his intestines open.
The alternative Guelaguetza was planned by the APPO in response to the government co-optation of the cultural festival that reflects indigenous tradition through dance. The movement charges that the festival has been made into a spectacle for tourists for years, and that the “official” Guelaguetza is a economic excursion on the part of multinational corporations and Ulises Ruiz, the state Governor targeted by the Oaxaca popular uprising that began last year. Last year, in actions against the official Guelaguetza, members of the APPO uprising burned the Guelaguetza stage.
By Barucha Calamity Peller
July 16th, 2007- Today in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, a confrontation between the APPO (Popular Assembly of The Peoples of Oaxaca) and security forces of the State of Oaxaca as well as Federal Preventive Police has left at least one movement participant dead as a result of police violence, at least 62 detained, and an unknown number of people disappeared.
According to an APPO press statement released today, the police launched “a broad offense” against the people of Oaxaca who were celebrating their alternative and popular guelaguetza (an annual Oaxacan cultural festival) in the Guelaguetza auditorium. The APPO announced two days previous that it would hold an alternative cultural festival in the main Guelaguetza auditorium, located in the Fortin Mountain outside of the city.
Federal Preventive Police and State police surrounded the perimeter of the Guelaguetza auditorium in order to prevent people from entering the festival. A caravan heading to the festival, tailed by 10,000 people, arrived to the auditorium, and in that moment the police attacked the crowd with tear gas, rocks, sticks, whatever they had in their hands, as well as with unidentified explosive projectiles. People retreated, and the police advanced, beating and arresting people. Three photographers were reported to have been beaten. Countless others were tossed into the back of police pick up trucks with serious injuries.
For the moment the state and the municipal police continue a citywide operation in the streets of Oaxaca City, detaining people in the open. The military are reported to have surrounded the city on the highways.
Several people are reported to be in grave conditions, and police apparently apprehended injured festival participants and APPO supporters while they were transported by the red cross to receive medical attention.
There are reports that the detained are suffering torture and constant beatings at the hands of the state and federal police.
Emeterio Merino Cruz Vazquez, the one confirmed fatality from police violence, was killed from impact from a unidentified explosive projectile fired by police, which split his intestines open.
The alternative Guelaguetza was planned by the APPO in response to the government co-optation of the cultural festival that reflects indigenous tradition through dance. The movement charges that the festival has been made into a spectacle for tourists for years, and that the “official” Guelaguetza is a economic excursion on the part of multinational corporations and Ulises Ruiz, the state Governor targeted by the Oaxaca popular uprising that began last year. Last year, in actions against the official Guelaguetza, members of the APPO uprising burned the Guelaguetza stage.
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same article as above, but with photos
http://elenemigocomun.net/1008
http://elenemigocomun.net/1008
For more information:
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/oaxaca
fyi
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070719073021844
Below is an URGENT call for international solidarity from the APPO here in Oaxaca. Please forward this call everywhere. Also below are links to just a few of the photos that I took of the Battle for Oaxaca and the intense repression we saw here on July 16, 2007.
The following is a repost from an anarchist comrade currently in Oaxaca.
Comrades,
Below is an URGENT call for international solidarity from the APPO here in Oaxaca. Please forward this call everywhere. Also below are links to just a few of the photos that I took of the Battle for Oaxaca and the intense repression we saw here on July 16, 2007.
It´s up to independent media to expose the truth about what has happened here in Oaxaca, against the lies of the corporate media. The images below
chronicle the arc of the day´s unfolding - beginning with the dances and songs of the People´s Guelaguetza, through the the peaceful march, the
police attack, and the battles in the streets.
Tonight we will be documenting the International Day Against Repression, remembering those imprisoned, disappeared, injured, and dead. Following, we will be posting a full report on all events that have transpired here in Oaxaca.
Images from the Frontlines of the Battle for Oaxaca:
http://nyc.indymedia.org/es/2007/07/88396.html
http://nyc.indymedia.org/es/2007/07/88414.html
http://nyc.indymedia.org/es/2007/07/88435.html
Oaxaca, July 16, 2007
URGENT ACTION--PLEASE SEND PETITION BELOW AND FORWARD WIDELY
NEW ESCALATION OF POLICE REPRESSION AGAINST THE POPULAR MOVEMENT IN OAXACA!
This past Monday, July 16, at approximately 11:30 a.m., elements of the Municipal Police, Preventive Police, and Industrial and Banking Police, attacked with tear gas and rocks, marchers of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) and teachers of the National Teachers Workers
Union, Section 22, who were trying to join the local festivities Fiesta Popular Oaxaqueña, in Guelaguetza Auditorium, Cerro del Fortín de la Ciudad de Oaxaca.
During this attack, several police brigades brutally beat the teachers and peaceful marchers, throwing tear gas against local commercial offices, private homes, and public buildings. Moreover, the violent escalation ended up in several wounded, included journalists from the Reforma, Noticias, Marca, and Tiempo newspapers, who were covering the brutal beatings imparted by the police. Although not yet officially confirmed, we would like to report 50 wounded, 45 people detained, and at least one dead.
These violent acts are marked by the State Government actions during Guelaguetza 2007, where areas of Cerro del Fortín were sealed off in which members of the Mexican Military Elite, the Preventative Federal Police, and the Federal Agency of Investigation participated. This operation was
coordinated by the Secretaría de Protección Ciudadana, whose objective was to prevent the celebration organized by APPO and Section 22. Nevertheless, the Administration had declared days earlier their absolute respect for such peaceful celebration.
We consider that this incident is one of many provocations implemented by the state government against the APPO and is an irrefutable sign, moreover, of a government that is unable to dialogue, opting instead for the irrational use of police force against civilians. These actions are clear
evidence of a recurring violation of human rights in the Oaxaca region, illegal under international treaties signed by Mexico.
Therefore, we make the following immediate demands:
• For an end to police represion, harrasment, and intimidation of the social and popular movements in Oaxaca
• We condenm governmental actions and indiscriminate use of force by the State and Federal police
• We demand the release of all political prisioners, making Federal and State officials responsible in the case of arbitrary detentions and disappearances of civilians.
Send your petitions to with copies to human rights entities:
Presidente FELIPE DE JESÚS CALDERÓN HINOJOSA
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos Casa Miguel Alemán
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850, México DF
Tel: +52 (55) 27891100
Fax: +52 (55) 52772376
felipe.calderon [at] presidencia.gob.mx
Licenciado Francisco Javier Ramírez Acuña,
Secretario de Gobernación,
Bucareli 99, 1er. piso, Col. Juárez,
Delegación Cuauhtémoc, México D.F., C.P. 06600, México,
Fax: +52 (55) 5093 3414
frjramirez [at] segob.gob.mx
Copies to:
Louise Arbour, Alta Comisionada de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos
Humanos, (High Commissioner for United Nations Human Rights Commission)
tb-petitions [at] ohchr.org, oacnudh [at] hchr.org.mx
Sr. Santiago Cantón
Secretario Ejecutivo
Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, (Executive Secretary of the
Interamerican Human Rights Commission)
cidhoea [at] oas.org
Dr. José Luis Soberanes Fernández
Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos
Periférico Sur 3469, Col.
San Jerónimo Lídice,
10200, México, D.F.
Tel: 631 00 40, 6 81 81 25
Fax: 56 81 84 90
Lada sin costo: 01 800 00 869
correo [at] cndh.org.mx
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070719073021844
Below is an URGENT call for international solidarity from the APPO here in Oaxaca. Please forward this call everywhere. Also below are links to just a few of the photos that I took of the Battle for Oaxaca and the intense repression we saw here on July 16, 2007.
The following is a repost from an anarchist comrade currently in Oaxaca.
Comrades,
Below is an URGENT call for international solidarity from the APPO here in Oaxaca. Please forward this call everywhere. Also below are links to just a few of the photos that I took of the Battle for Oaxaca and the intense repression we saw here on July 16, 2007.
It´s up to independent media to expose the truth about what has happened here in Oaxaca, against the lies of the corporate media. The images below
chronicle the arc of the day´s unfolding - beginning with the dances and songs of the People´s Guelaguetza, through the the peaceful march, the
police attack, and the battles in the streets.
Tonight we will be documenting the International Day Against Repression, remembering those imprisoned, disappeared, injured, and dead. Following, we will be posting a full report on all events that have transpired here in Oaxaca.
Images from the Frontlines of the Battle for Oaxaca:
http://nyc.indymedia.org/es/2007/07/88396.html
http://nyc.indymedia.org/es/2007/07/88414.html
http://nyc.indymedia.org/es/2007/07/88435.html
Oaxaca, July 16, 2007
URGENT ACTION--PLEASE SEND PETITION BELOW AND FORWARD WIDELY
NEW ESCALATION OF POLICE REPRESSION AGAINST THE POPULAR MOVEMENT IN OAXACA!
This past Monday, July 16, at approximately 11:30 a.m., elements of the Municipal Police, Preventive Police, and Industrial and Banking Police, attacked with tear gas and rocks, marchers of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) and teachers of the National Teachers Workers
Union, Section 22, who were trying to join the local festivities Fiesta Popular Oaxaqueña, in Guelaguetza Auditorium, Cerro del Fortín de la Ciudad de Oaxaca.
During this attack, several police brigades brutally beat the teachers and peaceful marchers, throwing tear gas against local commercial offices, private homes, and public buildings. Moreover, the violent escalation ended up in several wounded, included journalists from the Reforma, Noticias, Marca, and Tiempo newspapers, who were covering the brutal beatings imparted by the police. Although not yet officially confirmed, we would like to report 50 wounded, 45 people detained, and at least one dead.
These violent acts are marked by the State Government actions during Guelaguetza 2007, where areas of Cerro del Fortín were sealed off in which members of the Mexican Military Elite, the Preventative Federal Police, and the Federal Agency of Investigation participated. This operation was
coordinated by the Secretaría de Protección Ciudadana, whose objective was to prevent the celebration organized by APPO and Section 22. Nevertheless, the Administration had declared days earlier their absolute respect for such peaceful celebration.
We consider that this incident is one of many provocations implemented by the state government against the APPO and is an irrefutable sign, moreover, of a government that is unable to dialogue, opting instead for the irrational use of police force against civilians. These actions are clear
evidence of a recurring violation of human rights in the Oaxaca region, illegal under international treaties signed by Mexico.
Therefore, we make the following immediate demands:
• For an end to police represion, harrasment, and intimidation of the social and popular movements in Oaxaca
• We condenm governmental actions and indiscriminate use of force by the State and Federal police
• We demand the release of all political prisioners, making Federal and State officials responsible in the case of arbitrary detentions and disappearances of civilians.
Send your petitions to with copies to human rights entities:
Presidente FELIPE DE JESÚS CALDERÓN HINOJOSA
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos Casa Miguel Alemán
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850, México DF
Tel: +52 (55) 27891100
Fax: +52 (55) 52772376
felipe.calderon [at] presidencia.gob.mx
Licenciado Francisco Javier Ramírez Acuña,
Secretario de Gobernación,
Bucareli 99, 1er. piso, Col. Juárez,
Delegación Cuauhtémoc, México D.F., C.P. 06600, México,
Fax: +52 (55) 5093 3414
frjramirez [at] segob.gob.mx
Copies to:
Louise Arbour, Alta Comisionada de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos
Humanos, (High Commissioner for United Nations Human Rights Commission)
tb-petitions [at] ohchr.org, oacnudh [at] hchr.org.mx
Sr. Santiago Cantón
Secretario Ejecutivo
Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, (Executive Secretary of the
Interamerican Human Rights Commission)
cidhoea [at] oas.org
Dr. José Luis Soberanes Fernández
Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos
Periférico Sur 3469, Col.
San Jerónimo Lídice,
10200, México, D.F.
Tel: 631 00 40, 6 81 81 25
Fax: 56 81 84 90
Lada sin costo: 01 800 00 869
correo [at] cndh.org.mx
I need to correct the record on the July 16 clash between the police and protestors in Oaxaca.
My understanding, having lived here for the last year, was that the Popular Guelaguetza was going to be held, like last year, someplace in the city. Then the APPO announced it would be held at the auditorium on Fortin Hill. However, over the weekend, police fortifications began gathering on the hill. To avoid a bloodbath of innocent people and performers, Noticias printed a last minute notice that the popular guelaguetza would be held in the Plaza de la Danza, which many of my friends attended although I did not. At some point, apparently during or shortly after the dance at the Plaza, several thousand protestors began marching to the auditorium with the apparent intent to occupy it to keep the commercial event from happening on the two following mondays. They were met by the police of course and the rest is history. (If any of this scenario is not correct please let me know. It is difficult to know what exactly is happening in Oaxaca even when “you see it!”
I have no idea why the APPO press statement would say that the police launched an attack against the people “who were celebrating…in the auditorium” and that police surrounded the auditorium “in order to prevent people from entering the festival.” They wanted to make the attack look worse? Or maybe the release was manipulated by the translators?
Now the English language (at least) media and bloggers have picked up the following translated APPO press release exerpt that is patently untrue.
“According to an APPO press statement released today, the police launched “a broad offense” against the people of Oaxaca who were celebrating their alternative and popular guelaguetza (an annual Oaxacan cultural festival) in the Guelaguetza auditorium. The APPO announced two days previous that it would hold an alternative cultural festival in the main Guelaguetza auditorium, located in the Fortin Mountain outside of the city.
Federal Preventive Police and State police surrounded the perimeter of the Guelaguetza auditorium in order to prevent people from entering the festival.”
As for the police…why couldn’t they have just stood silently at the entrances to the tunnels into the auditorium with their shields like they did around the zocalo last year? It would have been impossible for people to enter without attacking the police. But oh, no, instead the police had to go on the offense and fire off tear gas and beat and arrest people!
Furthermore, last year the auditorium on Fortin was not “burned down.” A fire was set on the stage which damaged part of the floor. Also the bathrooms were badly trashed. A university student saw a group of porros and their leader (he knew the leader) standing together talking in the auditorium the next morning. So who paid the porros?
I just read an eye-witness account that I had posted earlier on my blog and noticed that the participant thought that apparently the police, in pursuing the marchers down Crespo from the auditorium on Fortin Hill, were headed for the Plaza de la Danza where the Popular Guelaguetza was being held but was unable to reach it or just gave up the chase.
It appears that what happened was that the small Plaza de la Danza quickly filled to overflowing with people to watch the dancers so the remaining marchers headed up to the auditorium on Fortin. Whether this was planned or not, I have no idea.
My understanding, having lived here for the last year, was that the Popular Guelaguetza was going to be held, like last year, someplace in the city. Then the APPO announced it would be held at the auditorium on Fortin Hill. However, over the weekend, police fortifications began gathering on the hill. To avoid a bloodbath of innocent people and performers, Noticias printed a last minute notice that the popular guelaguetza would be held in the Plaza de la Danza, which many of my friends attended although I did not. At some point, apparently during or shortly after the dance at the Plaza, several thousand protestors began marching to the auditorium with the apparent intent to occupy it to keep the commercial event from happening on the two following mondays. They were met by the police of course and the rest is history. (If any of this scenario is not correct please let me know. It is difficult to know what exactly is happening in Oaxaca even when “you see it!”
I have no idea why the APPO press statement would say that the police launched an attack against the people “who were celebrating…in the auditorium” and that police surrounded the auditorium “in order to prevent people from entering the festival.” They wanted to make the attack look worse? Or maybe the release was manipulated by the translators?
Now the English language (at least) media and bloggers have picked up the following translated APPO press release exerpt that is patently untrue.
“According to an APPO press statement released today, the police launched “a broad offense” against the people of Oaxaca who were celebrating their alternative and popular guelaguetza (an annual Oaxacan cultural festival) in the Guelaguetza auditorium. The APPO announced two days previous that it would hold an alternative cultural festival in the main Guelaguetza auditorium, located in the Fortin Mountain outside of the city.
Federal Preventive Police and State police surrounded the perimeter of the Guelaguetza auditorium in order to prevent people from entering the festival.”
As for the police…why couldn’t they have just stood silently at the entrances to the tunnels into the auditorium with their shields like they did around the zocalo last year? It would have been impossible for people to enter without attacking the police. But oh, no, instead the police had to go on the offense and fire off tear gas and beat and arrest people!
Furthermore, last year the auditorium on Fortin was not “burned down.” A fire was set on the stage which damaged part of the floor. Also the bathrooms were badly trashed. A university student saw a group of porros and their leader (he knew the leader) standing together talking in the auditorium the next morning. So who paid the porros?
I just read an eye-witness account that I had posted earlier on my blog and noticed that the participant thought that apparently the police, in pursuing the marchers down Crespo from the auditorium on Fortin Hill, were headed for the Plaza de la Danza where the Popular Guelaguetza was being held but was unable to reach it or just gave up the chase.
It appears that what happened was that the small Plaza de la Danza quickly filled to overflowing with people to watch the dancers so the remaining marchers headed up to the auditorium on Fortin. Whether this was planned or not, I have no idea.
For more information:
http://blogs.bootsnall.com/nomads
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